Podcasts about If Heaven

LESSON 138Heaven Is The Decision I Must Make.In this world Heaven is a choice, because here we believe there are alternatives to choose between. We think that all things have an opposite, and what we want we choose. If Heaven exists there must be hell as well, for contradiction is the way we make what we perceive, and what we think is real.Creation knows no opposite. But here is opposition part of being “real.” It is this strange perception of the truth that makes the choice of Heaven seem to be the same as the relinquishment of hell. It is not really thus. Yet what is true in God's creation cannot enter here until it is reflected in some form the world can understand. Truth cannot come where it could only be perceived with fear. For this would be the error truth can be brought to illusions. Opposition makes the truth unwelcome, and it cannot come.Choice is the obvious escape from what appears as opposites. Decision lets one of conflicting goals become the aim of effort and expenditure of time. Without decision, time is but a waste and effort dissipated. It is spent for nothing in return, and time goes by without results. There is no sense of gain, for nothing is accomplished; nothing learned.You need to be reminded that you think a thousand choices are confronting you, when there is really only one to make. And even this but seems to be a choice. Do not confuse yourself with all the doubts that myriad decisions would induce. You make but one. And when that one is made, you will perceive it was no choice at all. For truth is true, and nothing else is true. There is no opposite to choose instead. There is no contradiction to the truth.Choosing depends on learning. And the truth cannot be learned, but only recognized. In recognition its acceptance lies, and as it is accepted it is known. But knowledge is beyond the goals we seek to teach within the framework of this course. Ours are teaching goals, to be attained through learning how to reach them, what they are, and what they offer you. Decisions are the outcome of your learning, for they rest on what you have accepted as the truth of what you are, and what your needs must be.In this insanely complicated world, Heaven appears to take the form of choice, rather than merely being what it is. Of all the choices you have tried to make this is the simplest, most definitive and prototype of all the rest, the one which settles all decisions. If you could decide the rest, this one remains unsolved. But when you solve this one, the others are resolved with it, for all decisions but conceal this one by taking different forms. Here is the final and the only choice in which is truth accepted or denied.So we begin today considering the choice that time was made to help us make. Such is its holy purpose, now transformed from the intent you gave it; that it be a means for demonstrating hell is real, hope changes to despair, and life itself must in the end be overcome by death. In death alone are opposites resolved, for ending opposition is to die. And thus salvation must be seen as death, for life is seen as conflict. To resolve the conflict is to end your life as well.These mad beliefs can gain unconscious hold of great intensity, and grip the mind with terror and anxiety so strong that it will not relinquish its ideas about its own protection. It must be saved from salvation, threatened to be safe, and magically armored against truth. And these decisions are made unaware, to keep them safely undisturbed; apart from question and from reason and from doubt.Heaven is chosen consciously. The choice cannot be made until alternatives are accurately seen and understood. All that is veiled in shadows must be raised to understanding, to be judged again, this time with Heaven's help. And all mistakes in judgment that the mind had made before are open to correction, as the truth dismisses them as causeless. Now are they without effects. They cannot be concealed, because their nothingness is recognized.The conscious choice of Heaven is as sure as is the ending of the fear of hell, when it is raised from its protective shield of unawareness, and is brought to light. Who can decide between the clearly seen and the unrecognized? Yet who can fail to make a choice between alternatives when only one is seen as valuable; the other as a wholly worthless thing, a but imagined source of guilt and pain? Who hesitates to make a choice like this? And shall we hesitate to choose today?We make the choice for Heaven as we wake, and spend five minutes making sure that we have made the one decision that is sane. We recognize we make a conscious choice between what has existence and what has nothing but an appearance of the truth. Its pseudo-being, brought to what is real, is flimsy and transparent in the light. It holds no terror now, for what was made enormous, vengeful, pitiless with hate, demands obscurity for fear to be invested there. Now it is recognized as but a foolish, trivial mistake.Before we close our eyes in sleep tonight, we reaffirm the choice that we have made each hour in between. And now we give the last five minutes of our waking day to the decision with which we awoke. As every hour passed, we have declared our choice again, in a brief quiet time devoted to maintaining sanity. And finally, we close the day with this, acknowledging we chose but what we want:Heaven is the decision I must make.I make it now, and will not change my mind,because it is the only thing I want.- Jesus Christ in ACIM

Lords: * Lena * Droqen Topics: * Kill gameplay * https://droqen.itch.io/the-end-of-gameplay * The thrill of firefighting on live service games, and how to stop * It was D and K who showed me the way * https://newforum.droqen.com/index.php?topic=705 Microtopics: * Great content. * Multiplayer games that are focused on human connection. * Farmers' markets. * Kinopio. (The mind-mapping software.) * Just barfing stuff onto the page. * Looking at a piece of software that someone has polished for fifteen years and being astounded. * Weird ego boosts. * Meeting hundreds of people whose names you recognize from the Internet and they're all like "I love the thing you made." * Pursuing the thing that other people say is good about your work and forgetting what you liked about it yourself. * A nebulous idea whose lot in life is to be dominated by more concrete ideas. * Making your next game with the intention of killing your most popular game. * Unlocking creative expression into a vessel. * Tolerating a combat system to get to the good parts of a game. * Playing a game because you enjoy pushing the buttons. * A museum exhibit of a hundred different platformer control schemes. * Using your ability to hang out with people to tell them a story. * A list of all the ideas you've ever had. * The safety of watching the numbers go up. * An interaction that exists to be self-perpetuating. * Advertising as a way to tell people that a thing exists vs. all the noxious cruft that we've grown on top of that idea. * Game addiction as a thing that is desirable. * Games that grip you as tightly as possible vs. games that gracefully end and allow you to stop playing. * Game developers accidentally discovering that they can Skinner Box people and then deciding "let's build our entire industry around that forever" * The mantra you use to remind yourself to not put gameplay in your games. * Trying to detect the humanity in a work of art. * Trying to express your experiences in a medium and knowing you at least have an audience of one. (Yourself.) * Disagreeing about color names. * It's Thanksgiving and people are at-ing you on Twitter that your online service isn't working. * Moving fast enough that you don't have time to sit with your thoughts and second-guess yourself. * The true meaning of a Lord. * How to sit with the discomfort of uncertainty. * Solving a problem before you get the chance to wonder whether solving the problem aligns with your values. * Running an online world that gets hacked and rolling back only 98% of the hack, leaving enough to remind people that this is a world with a living history. * Ruminating about your past actions as a way to learn how to behave in the future. * Acting without reflection because you can't reflect and act at the same time. * It doesn't matter what you do as long as you feel really bad about it afterwards. * How to stop. * Don't make live service games. * Sitting with the knowledge that you are going to make mistakes. * Staring at blue-green walls. * The most juicy fire-fighting that's available. * The horrible steak that is life. * Trying to construct your life so that you are doing something thrilling and important for one to four hours per day and then relaxing. * The introverted fire fighter who has his own personal cardboard box to cover his head with as he's hanging out at the station. * What's-his-letter? * If Heaven's so good, why haven't they made a Heaven 2? * Making a one-user forum for yourself. * Poetry 2: it's when you do something interesting with forum posts. * Doing something for brain reasons and then people who you inspire do the same things to so they can pretend to have the same brain reasons. * Adding everyone who ever influenced you to the credits of your game. * Intentionally excluding the U. * Suck it, English orthography!

LESSON 138Heaven Is The Decision I Must Make.In this world Heaven is a choice, because here we believe there are alternatives to choose between. We think that all things have an opposite, and what we want we choose. If Heaven exists there must be hell as well, for contradiction is the way we make what we perceive, and what we think is real.Creation knows no opposite. But here is opposition part of being “real.” It is this strange perception of the truth that makes the choice of Heaven seem to be the same as the relinquishment of hell. It is not really thus. Yet what is true in God's creation cannot enter here until it is reflected in some form the world can understand. Truth cannot come where it could only be perceived with fear. For this would be the error truth can be brought to illusions. Opposition makes the truth unwelcome, and it cannot come.Choice is the obvious escape from what appears as opposites. Decision lets one of conflicting goals become the aim of effort and expenditure of time. Without decision, time is but a waste and effort dissipated. It is spent for nothing in return, and time goes by without results. There is no sense of gain, for nothing is accomplished; nothing learned.You need to be reminded that you think a thousand choices are confronting you, when there is really only one to make. And even this but seems to be a choice. Do not confuse yourself with all the doubts that myriad decisions would induce. You make but one. And when that one is made, you will perceive it was no choice at all. For truth is true, and nothing else is true. There is no opposite to choose instead. There is no contradiction to the truth.Choosing depends on learning. And the truth cannot be learned, but only recognized. In recognition its acceptance lies, and as it is accepted it is known. But knowledge is beyond the goals we seek to teach within the framework of this course. Ours are teaching goals, to be attained through learning how to reach them, what they are, and what they offer you. Decisions are the outcome of your learning, for they rest on what you have accepted as the truth of what you are, and what your needs must be.In this insanely complicated world, Heaven appears to take the form of choice, rather than merely being what it is. Of all the choices you have tried to make this is the simplest, most definitive and prototype of all the rest, the one which settles all decisions. If you could decide the rest, this one remains unsolved. But when you solve this one, the others are resolved with it, for all decisions but conceal this one by taking different forms. Here is the final and the only choice in which is truth accepted or denied.So we begin today considering the choice that time was made to help us make. Such is its holy purpose, now transformed from the intent you gave it; that it be a means for demonstrating hell is real, hope changes to despair, and life itself must in the end be overcome by death. In death alone are opposites resolved, for ending opposition is to die. And thus salvation must be seen as death, for life is seen as conflict. To resolve the conflict is to end your life as well.These mad beliefs can gain unconscious hold of great intensity, and grip the mind with terror and anxiety so strong that it will not relinquish its ideas about its own protection. It must be saved from salvation, threatened to be safe, and magically armored against truth. And these decisions are made unaware, to keep them safely undisturbed; apart from question and from reason and from doubt.Heaven is chosen consciously. The choice cannot be made until alternatives are accurately seen and understood. All that is veiled in shadows must be raised to understanding, to be judged again, this time with Heaven's help. And all mistakes in judgment that the mind had made before are open to correction, as the truth dismisses them as causeless. Now are they without effects. They cannot be concealed, because their nothingness is recognized.The conscious choice of Heaven is as sure as is the ending of the fear of hell, when it is raised from its protective shield of unawareness, and is brought to light. Who can decide between the clearly seen and the unrecognized? Yet who can fail to make a choice between alternatives when only one is seen as valuable; the other as a wholly worthless thing, a but imagined source of guilt and pain? Who hesitates to make a choice like this? And shall we hesitate to choose today?We make the choice for Heaven as we wake, and spend five minutes making sure that we have made the one decision that is sane. We recognize we make a conscious choice between what has existence and what has nothing but an appearance of the truth. Its pseudo-being, brought to what is real, is flimsy and transparent in the light. It holds no terror now, for what was made enormous, vengeful, pitiless with hate, demands obscurity for fear to be invested there. Now it is recognized as but a foolish, trivial mistake.Before we close our eyes in sleep tonight, we reaffirm the choice that we have made each hour in between. And now we give the last five minutes of our waking day to the decision with which we awoke. As every hour passed, we have declared our choice again, in a brief quiet time devoted to maintaining sanity. And finally, we close the day with this, acknowledging we chose but what we want:Heaven is the decision I must make.I make it now, and will not change my mind,because it is the only thing I want.- Jesus Christ in ACIM

Questions Covered:  06:30 – How can I respond to a protestant friend's interpretation of Matthew 8:22as it relates to Purgatory?  16:40 – Can the church change the status of a Saint?  20:53 – How does the devil help people in this world?  29:31 – Did Jesus mean that He would see the good thief in Heaven that day or did the thief need to go through Purgatory?   34:26 – What is the teaching about being married in Heaven?   42:33 – Is anyone in Hell?   49:40 – If Heaven is completely good, would Hell need to be completely evil? If so, How could Hell even exist?   …

Solving the riddle of Heaven.A Spring Break 14-part NovelBy FinalStand. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories.“Oh, oh, oh, baby…that hurts; that hur-…” she whispered hoarsely until I relented. That didn't stop her from hugging me tightly to her chest though.“Barbie Lynn, go over to my kit and get the Vaseline,” I ordered her after a bit.“Why do I have to do it?” she teased me.“I love to watch your ass wiggle when you leave and the way your bare breasts bounce when you come back,” I confessed. Once more she came on with this deep kiss and a winning smile, then she did as I asked and the view was definitely as delicious as I'd hoped.She quickly resumed her position over me, shimmying to the point I was afraid I'd actually press my cock too far into her vagina.Barbie was biting her lip while we played with her virginal fire; I knew I had to do something and that was to pop the top of the lubricant and rub two fingers deep into her back door.“Here we go,” I cautioned her, “I'll be slow and gentle. We are taking our time so don't worry about tensing up – I'll deal.” She gave me a nod, then went back to tempting fate.I was finding more and more to lust over with Barbie. When my right index finger brushed her pink star, she didn't flinch one bit. She kept her rotation going and I slipped in a finger without much protest or resistance. I let this finger slip in and out for a minute, sinking in deeper every few thrusts. To distract her, I moved my left hand between us and slipped two fingers into her pussy.That, along with the touch of my penis, got her off. Barbie bounced harder so I was forced to put a third finger in the way of my cock penetrating her, plus I pressed the knuckle of my thumb against her clit. For a second Barbie Lynn seemed at a loss of what to do, but one look at my parted lips, panting from the excitement, convinced her to feed one magnificent nipple into my mouth while she played with the other one before my eyes.She teased me so I stuck a second finger up her ass. Barbie bucked and moaned but if she was in any pain, she hid it well.“Do you want to know something?” she struggled to say, hovering over me. I nodded. “It took a grand total of seven minutes for the last two boys I was with to cum all over my tits. I don't know how long we've been going at it but Lord Almighty, I'm so happy I was given this dorm. This is going to be the best year ever.”“I'm working on it,” I gasped as I twitched and pushed my fingers around. “I'm glad you are my Dorm Mother.”“Oh, oh, oh, oh…the other girls are so jealous that I have you,” she panted. “They wanted to know what it would take to steal you away.”“I hope you understand that I want to stay here with you,” I groaned.Barbie Lynn stopped moving for a moment, accepting me and my honest desire.“Put it in,” she begged.“It will hurt,” I assured her.“I don't care,” she looked at me hungrily. I pulled my hand out of her cunt and rolled her to my side while still keeping my other fingers pumping in her ass.Maneuvering around so that I had her head on my pillow and ass sticking up took some thought. I pushed a third finger in quickly. Barbie gasped audibly, pulled away instinctively, then caught herself and pushed back against my hand. She whimpered and choked back a sob. I withdrew my fingers and covered my cock with some hastily scooped glob of Vaseline.Barbie looked back to me in quivering anticipation. Before she spoke I lined my cock up with her anus and started pushing. Barbie Lynn shut her eyes, bit her lower lip and smiled lustfully.“Oh!” she groaned, as I slipped past her anal ring. I knew enough to hesitate before the next push, then the next.“Please,” she whimpered. I stopped moving. “Please give me all of it,” she completed. “Don't hold back.” I pushed harder not waiting for her to adjust.“Aaahhh!” she cried out. I stopped and she responded with a, “No, no, no, Zane…please don't stop.”“I don't want to hurt you,” I groaned.“It hurts a lot but I like that you are the one doing it to me. Please, I want you inside of me, all the way in,” she whimpered. I pushed all the way in steadily until my crotch pushed her scrumptious ass cheeks apart. As I rested for a moment, I felt Barbie Lynn's fingers reach between her legs and start to massage my balls.I pulled back while she moaned loudly, her cries echoing throughout the massive glass covered chamber. Despite the low lamplight around my bed, I realized now that we could be seen from the solariums on the roofs of the other dorms. There wasn't much I could, or would, do about that now.I started a slowly intensifying pace in and out of Barbie's ass and she met me with the thrust of her hips and a sensual moaning from her throat. I could tell she was pushing one set of fingers into her snatch while the other worked over her clit. Once we were in total symmetry I slapped her playfully on one ass cheek.“Oh, God…Zane, do it again. I've been bad,” was Barbie's lusty declaration. I smacked down across the other cheek. “Harder, Zane, I've been really bad.” Another spank and, “I've been much worse than that,” she panted. SMACK! and a yelp. “That's it!” she gasped. I kept up the spanking and each blow made her anal muscles contract, virtually grabbing and twisting my cock inside her.“Ah…Jesus Loves Me!” Barbie Lynn squealed as her strongest orgasm to date overwhelmed her and then me. I'd never felt that kind of empathy with another lover like I was feeling with this blonde enchantress. Barbie bucked up against me, slamming her ass against my crotch with painful ferocity as my seed plunged into the depths of her bowels.Barbie Lynn, now virtually sitting in my lap, crested orgasm after orgasm as the heat of each burst of my semen burned new pathways of ecstasy inside her rectum.“Oh…oh…oh…oh,” she stammered as her fluids flowed down our legs in a slow steady stream. “Please, Zane …”“Yes?” I panted.“Promise me…promise me we'll do this again,” she gasped as she now pressed her sweat-slick back against my upper body.“Again,” I thrust into her, “and again, and again,” I promised. Barbie Lynn put one hand around to the back of my neck and the other, leaning forward.She drew me into her and we slowly arched forward until the weight of our bodies tumbled us to the bed. Barbie's outstretched arm touched the mattress first and absorbed most of our momentum. Still, I ended up pressing on her and I soon propped myself up so my weight wouldn't suffocate her.As I stationed myself there, panting along with her from our mutual exhaustion, Barbie rolled over so that we were once more face to face. She had this beatific happiness about her that I doubt I'll ever forget.“I…I was afraid I'd regret this…and you,” she grinned lazily.“Do you?” I questioned.“Yes. I regret I didn't take you back to my room and do this yesterday. I regret that we have to go to early classes tomorrow. I regret having to share you with nine hundred other women. And I regret you weren't here with me two years ago,” she murmured heartily.“I'm going to sit here and bask in my over-stuffed sense of accomplishment,” I faux-gloated. “You do a guy's ego good.”“Speaking of over-stuffed…can I please, please have one more…please?” she begged playfully.“You are my Dorm Mother and I really should try to keep you happy, so…” I related with feigned reluctance.“That's right,” she giggled, “you really need to keep me happy. Please show me how you plan to do that.”After another serious exploration of our sexuality, Barbie Lynn curled up against my chest, making this deep cat-like rumbling noise.“Do you always talk to Christina over breakfast?” I inquired.“Yes, I always do. If she asks about you…I…I'm going to tell her the truth,” she answered. I didn't ask what that would be so she did. “Aren't you worried about what I will say?”“No. I trust you, Barbie. You'll tell her what you need to tell her; truth, lie, or evasion, it is all your business, not mine,” I explained.“Well, I'm going to tell her in every minute detail what you did with, to, and for me tonight, and I promise you she's going to race back and change her panties,” she sighed happily.“Absolutely,” I affirmed. “I'll do what you tell me to do.”“That's good, because you are my partner this year. Watch my ass, don't fuck up, and show initiative,” she instructed me. In my mind I had three contradictory orders; was I supposed to watch her ass, or not fuck her, or was I supposed to come on to her? It was cold comfort that if I did screw up somehow, she could put a bullet through my left eye from anywhere on campus, killing me painlessly.“You were on one of the opposite roofs last night,” I blurted out. Hope looked demurely to the ground but flashed me a wink. “That is how you know what I look like naked.”“I have no idea what you are talking about,” she said putting away one of those telescopic sighting devices a spotter would use. Nothing more was said on the subject.The Riddle of HeavenA feeling of accomplishment – nay, a feeling that I might actually be fitting in – ran right into Heaven, Team Captain of the Orienteering Squad. I wasn't afraid she would toss me off the team for merely existing. Hell, I was afraid I'd automatically get on the team despite my lack of skill; after all, how else could Heaven lure me out and murder me in the State Forest bordering the campus if I wasn't on the team?The first half of the entrance process found us in a classroom doing math; figuring out angles and areas. We also had to study some Solar and lunar charts so we could figure out the position of the Sun given the day and time, as well as what phase the Moon was in and what it would be like in, say, one hundred days. I rocked at that which gave me a leg up going into round two.I knew precisely what a map and compass were. I'd used a few maps, and I'd never actually held a compass before but I'd seen all the Pirates of the Caribbean movies so I knew how compasses worked – not! I wasn't alone in this way of thinking. Several girls giggled over the fact. One laughingly pulled up the app on her phone.“That's great. Can I see it?” Heaven said, deceptively cool. The idiot girl handed it over with a smile. Heaven grinned, then hurled it against a large boulder close by, smashing it into a thousand pieces. She went over to it and stomped on the remains for a few seconds while the younger student gasped, then wept.“Okay,” Heaven said soothingly, “your phone is now destroyed. How do you survive long enough to get back to civilization?” We all developed a case of the ‘smarts' and kept our mouths shut.“Really…no one?” Heaven taunted us.“You go downhill,” I spoke up. Heaven glared, not at my answer but at the fact that I spoke at all.“Why is that, Mr. Braxton?” she asked in a hostile manner.“Water…you go downhill to find a source of water. Nothing else matters if you die of thirst,” I explained.“Would any one of you follow this idiot downhill?” Heaven sneered.One girl immediately raised her hand while the rest looked around nervously. Right before Heaven spoke again, a second girl raised her hand.“Well,” scoffed Heaven, “most of you will probably die because, while being an utter failure at the rest of his life, Zane guessed this one correctly.”“Your priorities are water, food, and shelter. Where you find moving water, you will most likely find something to eat too. You will also find small trees that are the easiest things to use for shelter. Unless rescue or egress is expected quickly, you must find a means of survival.” Then as an afterthought she addressed me,“Zane, you get a cookie,” and she tossed me a ginger cookie which I hesitantly bit in to. The class went on like this for ten minutes before she teamed us up for a little treasure hunt in the woods. I was teamed up with Heaven, making me wonder if they'd find my body after the deed was done. A few false starts later I began to get a feel for this orienteering stuff; if I headed one way and Heaven secretly smiled, I was going the wrong direction, and if she scowled, I was going the right way.We were the second team to complete the task on top of a large rock outcropping some distance into the state park. Heaven dismissed the others but put a hand on my chest when I made to leave. Once the sound of the rest moving through the underbrush died down she turned to me, clearly pissed. Her fist balled up and she shook slightly as if she was barely able to contain the rage she directed my way.I had three options: flee, confront, or submit. I sat down on the floor of the forest and waited. I could tell my reduction in stature confused her Why do you think most Buddhist monks prefer to conduct their business while in the lotus position?“Can you tell me why you hate me?” I inquired softly.Heaven stormed up to me and I was afraid she was going to boot me down the cliff. I don't think either of us knew why she stopped just short of me.“You don't belong here,” she choked out. “You are perverse and filthy. You are going to ruin everything.”“I'm not your enemy, Heaven. I'm not going to take any of your friends away from you. If I get in your way, let me know and I'll back off. The one thing I can't do is leave,” I explained. Heaven kicked me in the thigh, then kicked me again, so I scrambled up and faced her. She wanted to do this the hard way.Heaven came up right as soon as my feet were planted on the ground. I got in a block, another block, then I grabbed her wrist and put a leg behind hers. She toppled backwards while I rolled us into a side impact which allowed me to grab her other wrist as well. Heaven proved to be surprisingly strong as she thrashed about but she couldn't stop me from getting on top of her.For a moment we lay still but I was getting aroused and Heaven could sense it. I saw a look of near-terror come across her face before she went berserk beneath me. I struggled to keep on top until she finally wore herself down.“Would you just fucking talk to me!” I yelled at her. Heaven slowly ceased her efforts.“Get off of me,” she whispered intently. I rolled us over so that she was on top and released her wrists. Heaven quickly brought her knees up, straddling me with her palms on my chest. She was more than halfway off of me when she stopped and seemed to see me for the first time. I started pulling myself from under her when Heaven settled back down onto my stomach.“Hey, I'm sorry we fought, Hea…” I got out before she French kissed me. Heaven's whole body pressed into me. I settled down and began working my hands over her waist and hips. When I went for her ass, Heaven arched her back pressing her tits against my chest so that she could grab my hands in hers and pull them back to her waist.“Hands above the hips,” she panted lustfully to me between kisses.“Fine, but show me your tits,” I said. Not wasting a moment, Heaven scooted up so that she was sitting on my stomach once more and together we pulled her shirt free and unbuttoned it. I slipped my hand up around the bra and pushed it above her breasts before pressing her delicious orbs down to me to suckle on.It took me a few minutes to find out she had an arousal zone on her lower back that tingled with electricity whenever I caressed it. I had to coax Heaven into getting on all fours but when I pressed my lips there, her stiffness evaporated and she was putty in my hands. I was kneeling beside her with one hand stroking her far side while my closer hand alternated between each breast.When Heaven's breathing became more erratic and desperate she bolted upright on her knees, slipping one leg backward between mine and pressing her ass into my pelvis. I now cupped both tits, gently rubbing each nipple as I began nibbling her shoulder. I was still getting into it when Heaven suddenly spasms against me, then she repeats the process four more times before she trembled uncontrollably in my embrace.“Shush…” I reassured her. “I've got you. You are safe here with me.”“I. we. I. we need to be getting back,” she stammered. I got the feeling that she wanted to pretend this whole thing hadn't happened. I rolled up, then Heaven fixed her bra while I handed Heaven's shirt to her.We exchanged no further words until we were almost back to the campus wall when I turned to make sure she was okay. She was a little out of it but that wasn't my problem; this other thing was.“Heaven, hold on,” I told her. She looked contemplative and suspicious but did so.“You are… Mmm… sheesh, stay still; I'll take care of this,” I worked out.“What?” she asked cautiously.“You have cum dripping down your legs, Heaven,” I informed her. Heaven's eyes grew large and she took a half-step back but at the same moment she realized with utterly hopelessness that she had virtually no other choice.“What are you going to do?” she whispered. I had to think that one over for a second. I handed her my orienteering gear and took off my shirt, which didn't make Heaven any more comfortable.I knelt before her and used my shirt to wipe up the strands of semen going down the inside of each thigh. It was soon evident to me that she'd cum extensively and I had to work my way up under her skirt or more cum would simply drip down. For reasons I still don't understand, Heaven ceased resisting. Maybe she was tired of the whole charade.The first pair of underwear came down, then the second, and I cleaned them both with my now ruined shirt. I even went so far as to wipe her ass-crack where some had been forced up. Once I was satisfied that Heaven's underwear was as passable as I could manage, I ‘fixed' her in place and dressed her again without comment. The really sucky part was that I had to put my sticky, cum-splattered shirt back on. There was no way I could explain going bare-chested.Neither one of us spoke as we walked back, put our stuff up, and parted ways. It wasn't that I thought the matter would go away but I realized that my most pressing concern was doing what my school required. I was happy that I could sneak away before dinner and get a fresh shirt.A Taste of Brandi“What is my duty today, Brandi Sanders?” I started to say with a warm smile on my face. Brandi turned out to be a girl with thin, deep brown hair hanging loose, freckles, and a slender face. Her body was lithe, nothing out of proportion, though it turned out her ass was a prize; compact but with an enticing ability to project beyond the back and thighs.“I need you to help change the lights in my room,” she grinned. I had to reciprocate that look because I liked her creativity. I made a move for her chair then stopped myself.“That chair doesn't look safe,” I mused. “I imagine I'll have to lift you up to each bulb.” I leaned right, then left, taking in her gentle womanly curves which earned a salacious smile.“I think it would be more efficient for me to lift you by the front. Is that okay?” I asked softly, even somewhat hesitantly. Brandi nodded eagerly so I placed me in front of her, bent way down until my head was facing her covered belly button, and then I had snaked my arms around the top of her thighs.I made a half-attempt to lift her, then set her down.“Huh?” she gasped, “What's wrong?”“Brandi, some of your buttons are pressing into my face. Can I move them aside?”“Oh… okay,” then, “if you have to,” Brandi protested falsely.I used some slow seduction in pulling her shirt out of her skirt, doing my best to ignore our growing audience of young ladies. I opened the lowest button to see the top of the skirt behind it, but the next one was much more rewarding. Her soft stomach flesh felt warm beneath my lips and her intake of breath was its own reward.I didn't stop there, though. Buttons opened and kisses were given until I reached the bra, then I licked my way down to her belly button, which I sucked and licked for fifteen seconds. By this time, Brandi was breathing deeply and pressing her stomach against my lips. I reached up to massage her pert, firm ass with my hands while working on her belly button with my tongue.When I lifted her up by grabbing her thighs, she gasped slightly. She hovered next to the ceiling light for several seconds before realizing she didn't have a bulb.“Zane…” she started to say, but I was already starting to sweep her down into a horizontal position, stomach down, with her hands in easy reach of the box of light bulbs.“Wow, thanks, Zane,” she giggled. She took one bulb, despite there being four fixtures we need to change the bulbs in. I didn't mind; after all, every time I swung her down, I flipped her skirt artfully out of the way, and her panty-covered ass was laid out before me at chest level. I missed the first opportunity but I kissed a cheek on the second drop and took a nibble on the third and fourth drop, each time earning a low moan.During the periods when I was holding her upright, I took sadistic pleasure in sucking on her stomach, giving her two hickies as proof of our amorous encounter.“Thank you, Glenda,” she murmured into my chest as I let her down that last time, using my ‘enrolled' name.“I hope I have pleased you but I sadly have to be going,” I sighed, “I have a foot massage upstairs with Easter Valentine.” Brandi looked at me petulantly, then pushed past me to the door and Iona, who stood just outside in the hall.“Iona, when is he free again?” she demanded to know.“Sorry, Brandi, I can only book him one week in advance. I don't know what his study workload will be like or what things his team captains will require,” Iona grinned, somewhat emboldened with her newfound power and popularity.“Brandi,” I said, because I must be the Devil, “I couldn't help but notice how silky smooth and toned your legs are. Maybe in a few days they might be a tiny bit less so. You could demand that I shave your legs for you.”“Have you ever done this before?” she mused over the implications.“No, I haven't,” I confessed, “but you could teach me no matter how long that took.” Brandi spun on Iona and grabbed her by the shoulders.“You have to let me know when a slot opens up!” was Brandi's impassioned plea. Iona agreed nervously. When we finally got out of Brandi's room and headed off to my next stop, Iona bumped into me.“You are evil,” she whispered like some secret conspirator, “and I've never wanted to be a year older in all my life.” One year older, she could demand Handmaiden duties from me as well, but then it would be far less likely that we would be united as we are now.“Iona, you are proving to be a true friend,” I stated. “With you, it wouldn't be a duty.” Iona stumbled because clearly that idea hadn't occurred to her.In Case it was UnclearThe only thing that surprised me when I came up to my room, naked except for my gym shorts, fresh from my evening bathroom visit, was the look of shame on Barbie Lynn's face when I saw the rest of them.“Hello, Ladies. Before you lay into me, let me have a moment with Barbie Lynn,” I requested.“Barbie Lynn is leaving now,” Christina countered. I shrugged and walked back downstairs.“Come back here,” Christina commanded me.“Nope,” I shot back as I reached for the door.“Zane, where are you going?” Chastity inquired politely.“The Chancellor's house,” I answered. “Apparently I have some stuck up bitches in my room past curfew, plus Barbie Lynn.” I opened the door.“Please come back and talk to us,” Chastity requested. I was a bit angry but Chastity made a habit of being nice to me so…I went back upstairs.“Barbie Lynn, why don't you have a quick chat with Zane on your way out,” Queen Christina allowed. Barbie shot Christina a worried look, then shuffled over to where I was standing.“Zane…” Barbie started to say but I put a finger to her lips.“It's all good. I was hoping that after this is resolved you will want to come back tonight. Is that going to happen?” I revealed my desire for her. Barbie hugged me tightly then kissed me on the cheek before skipping down the stairs. I had the strange impression she thought I might have been angry with her.“We need to talk about what happened this afternoon,” Christina began once Barbie had shut the door downstairs.“No, we don't,” I responded, and headed for my bed; since I don't yet have walls, it is tough calling it a room.“I don't think you appreciate how important this issue is to me,” Christina stated heatedly.“Actually, I don't care how important this is to you, Christina. This is between Heaven and me,” I retorted.“You are going to satisfy my concerns or I will guarantee that you will be gone by the end of the week,” she snarled.That was enough for me; I spun around and got right in her face.“Do you remember when I said you could apologize to Rio or I'd make you do it and you would regret me having to force you?” I snapped right back. Christina glared defiance at me. “Well, this has nothing to do with that. I'll get you without fucking anyone else over and because you would even think I'd do that to Heaven, I'm going to make sure you cry too.”“What?” Christina, Chastity, and Heaven said all at once.“I'm going to nail Christina's ass to the wall, Heaven, but I'm not going to abuse the trust you put in me. What kind of fucker do you all think I am?” I asked bitterly.“How can we trust you?” Christina demanded. I rolled my eyes and walked over to Heaven, taking her by the hand which confused the hell out of her.“Heaven, come with me,” I requested. I dragged her toward my bed but she resisted.“What are you doing?” she inquired desperately.“Heaven, I'm a guy dragging a girl to my bedroom. If your first guess is Parcheesi, there is something seriously wrong with you.”“It is…you know…how can you…I can't,” Heaven evaded.“Don't worry about someone spying on us; Hope is here with us tonight,” I grinned.“Zane, this isn't a good idea,” Heaven pleaded.“Zane, let her go,” Christina told me as she stepped to Heaven's side, and by the body language I was clearly not getting in the front door.“Heaven, if I hurt you, what are the odds of my taking an impromptu flying lesson through one of these panes of glass?” I joked dryly. Chastity and Hope exchanged a look.“I think we can make the fountain from the Southeast corner,” Hope assured us both.“This is not a joking matter,” Christina snapped at the two of us. I'd rarely seen someone so ferociously defensive of a non-relative.“I wasn't joking,” I said.“I wasn't joking,” Hope said at the same time.Christina was about to drag Heaven out of the equation; time for the Hail Mary.“Heaven, do you want to have sex with me again?” I hammered away.“Again,” gasped Faith, silent until now. “You can't have sex with Heaven; she's…”Now it was all but out in the open.“Anyone who thinks that is fucking nuts,” I shouted as I grabbed Heaven's hand away from Christina and took her to my bed.I swung Heaven onto the bed so fast she bounced. Before she could organize herself, I was on top of her. I had one leg between hers but she slammed them together so hard it hurt. I landed over her, our faces inches apart. My eyes kept boring into her until her lips opened and a small moan escaped. I knew I fell on her first but her hands were all over me so fast that I could hardly be seen as molesting her.Peripherally aware that we had an audience, Heaven and I pressed, pulled, and aroused one another for several minutes. We had her top and bra off and her legs pulled up so far, her knees were just below my armpits.“You go, girl,” I heard Chastity playfully whisper when Heaven rolled me over so that she was on top. She didn't break up her actions but I could see Heaven smiling for the first time.“I don't get it,” Faith whispered to someone. “Does this mean Heaven likes guys, and if she does, does that mean she's…you know…”“Homosexual?” Hope clarified.“Technically, that makes Heaven gay,” Chastity added.“There is nothing wrong with Heaven,” Christina stated. “She is fine being who she is…unique and special.” In the arena, I was busy letting my hands slide down to the forbidden zone without any resistance. I hooked her underwear and started working them up until…“OW!” Heaven gasped. Everyone looked at us. “That wedgy hurts,” she sobbed, as she ran a hand over her offended rear end.“If it really bothers you, take off your panties,” I taunted Heaven. She looked angry but instead of acting out, she kissed me and bit my lip until it was my turn to cry out in pain. As I rubbed my lip she rolled to the side and quickly pulled down her underwear. Heaven remounted me and for a moment she looked uncertain, so I grabbed her head in both hands and pulled her into a lip-lock.All she had on was her white socks and pleated skirt which had ridden up around her waist. Heaven wedged a hand down to my cock and began lightly stroking it with her fingertips. I reached down and cupped one ass cheek before discovering her anus and playfully rubbing against it.Heaven began loudly moaning and bucking against me.“I think we can be pretty sure she likes guys,” commented Hope.“She hasn't sucked his cock yet,” Faith countered, but she might as well have raised a red flag in front of Heaven because in seconds, Heaven had left my lips and was kissing down my throat to my chest.Before I let her get out of reach, I took my free hand and put it on Heaven's meat and started to stroke it next to mine. Heaven flinched, then looked up at me with an unreadable expression. We began tandem stroking our cocks, my knuckles brushing my cock and her hands brushing hers. Unable to reach my lips, Heaven began kissing and biting my nipples.“Ever done this before?” I gasped, indicating our mutual masturbation. Heaven shook her head in the negative. I tried to taunt her one step further. “Why don't we stop this and just cuddle?” Heaven lurched forward and stopped stroking me long enough to slap me across the face so hard I could taste blood; a reminder of Heaven's anger issues.“You started this,” she insisted, “so don't you think you can get out of things now.” She then resumed her actions as if nothing happened.“Shouldn't we do something to make sure she doesn't break him?” Hope asked her female cohorts.“I know CPR,” Faith volunteered, and here I thought she didn't like me. I was digesting that tidbit when Heaven slipped below my reach leaving my hands free to play with her hair.“Mmm…” Heaven purred as she took in the bulbous head of my penis. There wasn't too much foreplay there, just a hungry need on Heaven's side to take on my cock.She was working over past issues and confronting some internal barriers experience had scarred her with. Heaven was hesitant, sloppy, and used too much teeth; for me it was not a mind rocking blowjob; the best I could do was soldier through it and concentrate on encouraging her as much as possible.I was selling my enthusiasm hard and Heaven was certainly getting into it, making wet slurping noises as she vigorously bobbed farther and farther down my shaft. It took me a moment to register Christina sitting beside us. She was smiling down at Heaven and running her hand through Heaven's hair intertwining with mine.“Use your tongue to manipulate his shaft,” was one of Christina's whispered suggestions and encouragements to Heaven. As I was enjoying the new sensations, I also registered the fact that Christina seemed to know a great deal about portions of the male anatomy the Purity Pledge put on the No Fly list.Christina began rubbing one hand over my chest which felt real good – incredibly good, but there was something I had to do.“I need to see Heaven,” I told Christina. She regarded me quizzically and Heaven all but stopped her activities as she studied me. “You are all I need right now,” I told Heaven.In some cultures what happened next would be considered cannibalism; Heaven did her damnedest to swallow my entire length in one push. I have had girls with a lot more experience fail on the first try. On the second attempt she didn't get as far but she was sucking with greater force.“Oh, fuck!” I grunted. Heaven flashed me with a devilish look in her eyes before pumping my shaft rapidly with one hand while sucking in and out the head and first inch. Note to Self: if this whole Christian Chick thing doesn't work out for Christina, bankroll her in creating self-help sexual instruction videos.“Close,” I panted, “real close.” If Heaven had raised her head and jacked me off onto my stomach, I would have been perfectly happy. Girls did that all the time; the taste of semen is not for everyone. Heaven made her own decision and kept doing what she was doing. Ten seconds later my hands tensed in her hair and I began shooting ribbons of my seed into her mouth.It took a few moments for Heaven to decide to swallow but when she did she was grinning like the Cheshire cat up into Christina's eyes. Both of them started crying and I hadn't a clue as to why. Sometimes another person's baggage is not your business and this looked to be one of those times.“Okay,” I choked. “I only wanted one of you bitches up here tonight so Heaven can stay but the rest of you have to go.” No one responded instantly.“You don't tell me what to do, freshman,” Heaven said as she smacked me across my thigh. “Christina, let's get out of here; I feel like getting something to eat…something else that is,” she told the Queen.In the time it took Heaven to gather her clothes and get dressed, the group was gone, and I was left wondering what the hell I'd stepped into. I figured one guy and nine hundred girls, and I'd be living the dream. Only an idiot would have assumed there would be no existing power structure, competing sexual desires, or people less than happy with my cleverness. Suddenly, having to survive three more days to the weekend seemed too much to ask.To Be Continued.By FinalStand for Literotica

If Heaven is a place of rest, why the passages about working? Blog: www.growingingrace.blog Follow me on Facebook or Twitter! I pray this episode served you well! Please consider leaving a rating on Apple Podcasts as this will help others find the podcast, and please share on social media!

Join us as we relive some of Robin Williams' most iconic moments, both on and off the stage, unveiling the layers of his incomparable talent and extraordinary humanity. From his uncanny ability to find humor in the darkest corners of life to his relentless dedication to bringing joy to others, this video is a testament to the transformative power of laughter and compassion.Be prepared to reflect, to laugh, and to shed a tear as we explore the profound insights Robin Williams shared during his remarkable career. His timeless wisdom will not only touch your heart but also challenge you to embrace the beauty and fragility of life, reminding us all to live each day to the fullest.“If Heaven exists, to know that there's laughter, that would be a great thing.”- Robin WilliamsSpeaker: Robin Williams (1951 - 2014)Learn more: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000245/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_W...Speech: Various speeches, interviews and clips from the life of Robin WilliamsProduced and Edited by T&H Inspiration Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Heaven is the decision I must make. In this world Heaven is a choice, because here we believe there are alternatives to choose between. We think that all things have an opposite, and what we want we choose. If Heaven exists there must be hell as well, for contradiction is the way we make what we perceive, and what we think is real. Creation knows no opposite. But here is opposition part of being "real." It is this strange perception of the truth that makes the choice of Heaven seem to be the same as the relinquishment of hell. It is not really thus. Yet what is true in God's creation cannot enter here until it is reflected in some form the world can understand. Truth cannot come where it could only be perceived with fear. For this would be the error truth can be brought to illusions. Opposition makes the truth unwelcome, and it cannot come. Choice is the obvious escape from what appears as opposites. Decision lets one of conflicting goals become the aim of effort and expenditure of time. Without decision, time is but a waste and effort dissipated. It is spent for nothing in return, and time goes by without results. There is no sense of gain, for nothing is accomplished; nothing learned. You need to be reminded that you think a thousand choices are confronting you, when there is really only one to make. And even this but seems to be a choice. Do not confuse yourself with all the doubts that myriad decisions would induce. You make but one. And when that one is made, you will perceive it was no choice at all. For truth is true, and nothing else is true. There is no opposite to choose instead. There is no contradiction to the truth. Choosing depends on learning. And the truth cannot be learned, but only recognized. In recognition its acceptance lies, and as it is accepted it is known. But knowledge is beyond the goals we seek to teach within the framework of this course. Ours are teaching goals, to be attained through learning how to reach them, what they are, and what they offer you. Decisions are the outcome of your learning, for they rest on what you have accepted as the truth of what you are, and what your needs must be. In this insanely complicated world, Heaven appears to take the form of choice, rather than merely being what it is. Of all the choices you have tried to make this is the simplest, most definitive and prototype of all the rest, the one which settles all decisions. If you could decide the rest, this one remains unsolved. But when you solve this one, the others are resolved with it, for all decisions but conceal this one by taking different forms. Here is the final and the only choice in which is truth accepted or denied. So we begin today considering the choice that time was made to help us make. Such is its holy purpose, now transformed from the intent you gave it; that it be a means for demonstrating hell is real, hope changes to despair, and life itself must in the end be overcome by death. In death alone are opposites resolved, for ending opposition is to die. And thus salvation must be seen as death, for life is seen as conflict. To resolve the conflict is to end your life as well. These mad beliefs can gain unconscious hold of great intensity, and grip the mind with terror and anxiety so strong that it will not relinquish its ideas about its own protection. It must be saved from salvation, threatened to be safe, and magically armored against truth. And these decisions are made unaware, to keep them safely undisturbed; apart from question and from reason and from doubt. Heaven is chosen consciously. The choice cannot be made until alternatives are accurately seen and understood. All that is veiled in shadows must be raised to understanding, to be judged again, this time with Heaven's help. And all mistakes in judgment that the mind had made before are open to correction, as the truth dismisses them as causeless. Now are they without effects. They cannot be concealed, because their nothingness is recognized. The conscious choice of Heaven is as sure as is the ending of the fear of hell, when it is raised from its protective shield of unawareness, and is brought to light. Who can decide between the clearly seen and the unrecognized? Yet who can fail to make a choice between alternatives when only one is seen as valuable; the other as a wholly worthless thing, a but imagined source of guilt and pain? Who hesitates to make a choice like this? And shall we hesitate to choose today? We make the choice for Heaven as we wake, and spend five minutes making sure that we have made the one decision that is sane. We recognize we make a conscious choice between what has existence and what has nothing but an appearance of the truth. Its pseudo-being, brought to what is real, is flimsy and transparent in the light. It holds no terror now, for what was made enormous, vengeful, pitiless with hate, demands obscurity for fear to be invested there. Now it is recognized as but a foolish, trivial mistake. Before we close our eyes in sleep tonight, we reaffirm the choice that we have made each hour in between. And now we give the last five minutes of our waking day to the decision with which we awoke. As every hour passed, we have declared our choice again, in a brief quiet time devoted to maintaining sanity. And finally, we close the day with this, acknowledging we chose but what we want: Heaven is the decision I must make. I make it now, and will not change my mind, because it is the only thing I want.- Jesus Christ in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 138

If Heaven and Hell are real, what does that mean for your life today? In this message, Pastor Jeremy Lefler shares how the Spirit of God is moving and how Jesus is resurrecting the dead today.

In this episode, we get simple ... and ethical. If Heaven and Earth (or Tao) last forever, how do they do it? (Spoiler alert: They live for others, and not for themselves.) Teased out in this verse is the same question for us. How may we endure? The answer is as simple as it may "seem" difficult to practice, but I make the bold assertion that our endurance and living long is no different from Tao's (after all, Tao birthed us, right?). We endure by finding our fulfillment in the filling and fulfillment of others. This podcast is an original labor of love, designed, written, and co-produced by many, whose central idea is that Tao te Ching is good news for today. Tao still speaks. Thanks to Terri Farless for her voice and question. Audrey Davis is our artist. Molly Hartwell donated her song “Put Your Roots Down”. Fortress Press holds the copyright for quotations from my Tao Te Ching translation. The poem found near the end of the episode is found here: https://www.awakin.org/v2/read/view.php?tid=2613 May your days begin in peace, and become wombs for radical hope. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/marc-mullinax/message

Opening Session - Purpose is Everything - The Heart of Christ Online Retreat with David Hoffmeister and Frances XuJesus says in A Course in Miracles, You have been called, together with your brother, to the holiest function this world contains. It is the only one with no limits and reaches out to every broken fragment of the Sonship with healing and uniting comfort. At the beginning of this journey, you can feel quite clueless about what you are called into, letting up all your darkness and being called to join with your brothers in authentic ways. But soon, bubbling joy starts in your heart, maybe for the first time. When you feel this way, you realize there is no reason to return to a depressing state of trying to make it in this world. If Heaven feels this way to you, that's all you want. That's all you would give your life over to. You have to make a conscious choice. 'I want happiness. I like this bubbling joy to be forever for me. That's all there is. Then suddenly, when you are looking back, with this desire, and this purpose held in my mind, a pathway shows up, and every single step has been given to this point.Enjoy David Hoffmeister, and Frances Xu's opening session for this monthly Heart of Christ online retreat with the topic 'Purpose is Everything.'You can watch the beginning of the session on YouTube.https://youtube.com/live/tCpz6U-UeDMIf you want to know more about David Hoffmeister and Living Miracles events, here is more information: https://circle.livingmiraclescenter.org/events.Recorded on February 3, 2023, at La Casa Quantico, Chapala, Mexico.

We have a great show. For our first show for 2023, we are remembering James Lipton. James Lipton was the iconic dean of the Actors Studio. You might know James Lipton for his popular show "Inside the Actors Studio." On each episode, Mr. Lipton would ask actors a series of questions in front of a live audience, which typically consisted of students. What I loved about Mr. Lipton's interview style was that he knew more about his guests than they knew about their own lives. At the end of each show, he would ask a series of questions inspired by Bernard Pivot. In one instance, I interviewed actor, friend, and founder of Telephone Doctor Nancy Friedman on my weekly podcast Franchise Interviews. Listen to Nancy's responses. What is your favorite word? What is your least favorite word? What turns you on creatively, spiritually, or emotionally? What turns you off? What sound or noise do you love? What sound or noise do you hate? What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? In Part Two, we play a clip from our popular Great Quotes in Franchising podcast.    

Prerequisites. Students certainly know what those are. Those are things that have to come before other things. Before you can take English 201, you have to take English 101. Today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us explore any prerequisites in making a genuine commitment to Jesus Christ. If Heaven hangs in the balance, we want to make sure our hearts and minds are sincere in fully accepting the Lord's invitation. Today's message serves as the finale to our studies in Acts. Listen on harvest.org --- Learn more and subscribe to Harvest updates at harvest.org. A New Beginning is the daily half-hour program hosted by Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Southern California. For over 30 years, Pastor Greg and Harvest Ministries have endeavored to know God and make Him known through media and large-scale evangelism. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.Support the show: https://harvest.org/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Prerequisites. Students certainly know what those are. Those are things that have to come before other things. Before you can take English 201, you have to take English 101. Today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us explore any prerequisites in making a genuine commitment to Jesus Christ. If Heaven hangs in the balance, we want to make sure our hearts and minds are sincere in fully accepting the Lord's invitation. Today's message serves as the finale to our studies in Acts. Listen on harvest.org --- Learn more and subscribe to Harvest updates at harvest.org. A New Beginning is the daily half-hour program hosted by Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Southern California. For over 30 years, Pastor Greg and Harvest Ministries have endeavored to know God and make Him known through media and large-scale evangelism. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.Support the show: https://harvest.org/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Gyles and Aphra Brandreth's journey around the Commonwealth takes them to Cameroon via Russia and Wales! They meet Eric Ngalle Charles a Cameroonian born, Wales based writer, poet, playwright, and actor who shares his remarkable journey crossing continents from Africa to Europe. Poems in this episode include If Heaven is Her Father's Land, Her Father Can Keep It, and Fragments by Eric Ngalle Charles. Poetry from around the world! A fortnightly celebration of Poetry and The Commonwealth. 

Pastor Chad discusses "If Heaven is Guaranteed, Why Give My Whole Life on Earth?" Pastor Chad challenges us to examine what it means to have Christ be the King and Lord over our lives. – For more information about Hope, visit HopeChurchMemphis.com. — Stay connected with Hope through any of our digital platforms: HopeChurchMemphis.com Instagram: @Hope4Memphis Facebook: Facebook.com/Hope4Memphis YouTube: YouTube.com/Hope4Memphis — Share any prayer requests or praises you have with us here: HopeChurchMemphis.com/Prayer — Your faithful generosity demonstrates your commitment to the local church and beyond. Give today at HopeChurchMemphis.com/Give

Sam Koon is a guitarist, songwriter & powerhouse vocalist. Originally from Central Florida with roots also in Georgia, Sam originally performed out of Nashville as the lead singer for touring act & country crossover artist, Jessta James ...but it wasn't until just a few years ago Sam decided to release his own original music. As a songwriter, Sam received his first major label cut with Sony/RCA recording artist Andrew Jannakos' single “Somebody Loves You” which debuted as the #1 trending TikTok sound in May 2021. Sam also has 2 recent cuts with “Running Out of Roses” & “Somebody's Gotta Do It” landing on Big Yellow Dog's Brandon Davis' debut album “Hearts Don't Rust”. “I'm so excited to continue to release original music”, says Sam, “I have several songs I've written in the past few years & I can't wait to continue to release more. As an independent artist, I'm thankful for some of the opportunities that have come my way & look forward to sharing more.” Sam continues to grow his audience and plans on releasing several songs this year in hope of a full-length project So strap up your seatbelts and let's take a ride to Georgia on this episode of the dHarmic Evolution podcast. As a Preview: In this episode, we speak to rock turned country music rising star Sam Koon. We explore everything about Sam from his time as rock lead singer for Jessta James, his personal writing process detailing from song conception to completion and how he got into co-writing. Also, we touched on Sam's experience in vocal training, its importance for other artists and his vocal influences. Finally, we had  a quick story of James doing a gig with his son Trevor, all here on the dHarmic Evolution podcast. More about Sam Koon Find out more about Sam and hear his music through different platforms. All the links are provided below! Check out his website, social media pages and music platforms that you can visit. Quotes: “I think I've always written ever since I picked up the guitar when I was fifteen”-Sam “It was a pleasant transition to country music for me”-Sam “Don't get me wrong, coming from rock, I like having some loud guitars but the dynamic of the song, I like those choruses because they really can soar”-Sam “The song seems to always have a mind of its own”-James “‘Cos a lot of time you can get boxed in your head, and can't break through to the second verse”-Sam “No matter what you do and how bad you think it is or how bad you think you are, like it's really gonna be alright. It happens to the best of us; we're all human. We should love each other and support each other.”-Sam “It's worth it to me, even losing money because I like to go out there ‘cos of the experience and the potential that one day something could happen”-Sam “When I get an idea, I like to start at the last line of the chorus that's the tag”-Sam “There are so many techniques, ideas, tricks and hacks of songwriting… it's one of the most freeing and creative things you can ever do”- James  Time Stamps: 00:56 Introducing the country star, Sam Koon 04:10  How Sam got to join Jessta James 06:02 How Sam almost got arrested 06:37 How Sam discovered his song-writing ability 06:56 Sam's short stint in Rock n Roll 08:28 Behind Sam's debut country song, “If Heaven has a backdoor” 09:56 How Sam got into co-writing 11:57 Best of us starts playing 15:22 How Sam created Best of us 18:23 Which performance does Sam prefer: Solo or Band? 19:09 How Sam got connected to writer's round 21:50 Sam's experience opening for big acts with a band 23:48 Sam's vocal training 24:43 James' self-consciousness during vocal training 26:12 Sam's writing process 29:15 Every other weekend from Sam Koon starts playing 33:06 Sam's vocal influences 35:45 How vocal coaching was important for Sam 37:14 What is Sam's favorite thing to do at chill time 37:58 What does the future look like for Sam 39:48 Two Dads hitting it off together 41:12 What is Sam's band support structure 42:08 What is Sam's favorite band set up, four-piece or five-piece? 43:06 Sam's closing statement 44:26 Listen to Ride On from James Kevin O'Connor   Spotify Playlist:   Make sure you're not missing out on all our “Rising dHarmic Stars Spotify Playlists”. We already have four (4) playlists where you can find over a hundred songs from our very own dHarmic Evolution alumni .Don't forget to share them with your family and friends as well and let the world support these amazing indie artists! Check out the links here:   dHarmic Rising Stars: Aquila   https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4loDaYF0OuWRjZeMXvEjK4   dHarmic Rising Stars: Orion   https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5CnL9tl0xbU4oDh6jtJBZx   dHarmic Rising Stars: Lyra   https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1ov0OqNMJmPhHrxZjsXthS   dHarmic Rising Stars: Scorpius   https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5oQ4Sc4LAJSexsDgDcixt8   dHarmic Evolution links:   Stay up-to-date with our new releases! You just simply need to go to dharmicevolution.com and subscribe to your favorite podcast platform – there are a lot to choose from! Let me know what you think as well by leaving comments or reviews! And if you're digging this show, please share it with somebody either on social media or just forward it to a friend and let them join the growing community of dHarmic Evolution!   Hey, do you know someone who is suffering from anxiety and depression? Please help them out by suggesting the book “7 Steps to Mental Freedom.” It will be a great read for them. You can easily find it as well on the main page of the website or you can just send them to https://tinyurl.com/yc4wuwbf   Keep yourself updated with what's going on with dHarmic evolution; check out our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/dharmicevolution and, if you are an artist, an author, or a keynote speaker, who is trying to find a safe place to post your content to, you can check out our own Facebook community page and let the world support you! Check out the link here: dHarmic Evolution Community.    Special Links and Mentions   Jessta James  If Heaven has a backdoor by Sam Koon Co-writing Best of Us Alex Smith Jeffrey Steel Writer's Rounds  Cadillac3 Dave Matthews Steven Tyler Every other Weekend by Sam Koon Ride On by James Kevin O'Connor   Connect with Sam Koon   Website   Facebook   Instagram

Episode 106 We are thrilled to be joined today by author, speaker, and public theologian, Brian McLaren. His new book, "Do I Stay Christian?: A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed, and the Disillusioned" is an absolute must-read for any Christian struggling to make sense of things in this crazy world we live in. We talk about creating hope, fighting white supremacy, re-wilding Christianity, and the playful joy of reimagining religion.  Speaking of reimagining religion, have you checked out Zack's new podcast with his wife Nichole, "Reimagining Faith with the Pastors Jackson"? If you enjoy DtW (and of course you do), then you should check it out!    Support this podcast on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/DowntheWormholepodcast   More information at https://www.downthewormhole.com/   produced by Zack Jackson music by Zack Jackson and Barton Willis    Transcript  This transcript was automatically generated by www.otter.ai, and as such contains errors (especially when multiple people are talking). As the AI learns our voices, the transcripts will improve. We hope it is helpful even with the errors. Zack Jackson 00:04 You are listening to the down the wormhole podcast exploring the strange and fascinating relationship between science and religion. Our guest today is an author, speaker, activist and public theologian. He is the author of over 15 books including faith after doubt, a generous orthodoxy and a new kind of Christian which got me in a whole lot of trouble at my home church 20 years ago, his new book do I stay Christian, a guide for the doubters, the disappointed and the disillusioned is an absolute must read for any Christian struggling to make sense of things in this crazy world we live in is an absolute joy and honor to welcome to the podcast, Brian McLaren. Oh, joy   Brian McLaren 00:45 and honor for me to be with you guys. So, so glad to be here.   Zack Jackson 00:49 Yes, I was thrilled to death to get that the email confirming that you had time in your very busy schedule to be with us today. We're all big fans, and I'm sure a lot of folks on the of our listenership likewise.   Brian McLaren 01:03 Well, hey, and I gotta say, now that I know about you guys, I'm your fan as well. And, you know, this subject of the inner interaction between faith and science, my goodness, so important these days. So really happy to be in this conference. Yes, thank you.   Zack Jackson 01:21 I love the way that you weave these two things together in your writings, by the way, and I've noticed it really in the past 10 years worth of books are so it seems, it seems almost effortless that every once in a while you're just gonna get some reference in there to evolution, some reference in there to the cosmic origins of the universe, it just seems like it is. It is always somewhere in the back of your mind.   Brian McLaren 01:45 Well, it's Yeah. And maybe I could say it this way. Without science. I don't think I could be a Christian. So. So yeah, I can't imagine how anyone would want to have a faith that were they had to keep their faith in one compartment. And then everything else. Another compartment compartments, right. Yeah.   Zack Jackson 02:10 Well, that's a sound clip that I'll definitely Absolutely. So Ian and I have been talking a lot recently about your new book, which when the time this podcast launches will have been released yesterday, so available to all of your major retailers. So this book, which is just so helpfully entitled, do I stay Christian? answers that question, which I think a lot of folks have had over the past couple of years, especially. But it's it's very helpfully organized into three sections, the answer that question that? No, I will not stay Christian. And here's why. Yes, I will stick it out and stay Christian. And the last section is how, which of those sections is taking up the most real estate in your mind? And in your day to day life?   Brian McLaren 03:03 Well, let's see. I think all of them jostle for the top position. But I think actually, the writing of this book propelled the third question up in importance. Because in the writing of this book, I realized it's just inevitable. Some people cannot stay Christian, the religion is killing them. It's damaging them, they need to get away at least for a time. And, and other people will stay Christian, it's who they are, and how could they deny who they are? And, and then what I realized is, even whatever you decide on staying Christian, you have to wake up the next morning, and ask what kind of a human being am I going to be? And that I hope that the Reading of the book helps lift the importance of that question up for everybody.   Ian Binns 04:02 Well, and I, you know, Brian, I really appreciated that aspect of the book. And as I said, Before recording, I absolutely loved the book, you know, so for me, I don't have the kind of historical experiences that I know, Brian, you talk about in your books, and that Zach has had and talked about before, the feeling I needed to leave, like, deconstruct and then come back or anything like that. But one of the things that I've always struggled with, is and you you do so well, in the first several chapters, when the answer to your question is no, you know, those chapters explaining No, just really stood out for me. And so but sorry, I know, I'm rambling. This is normal for me. But at the end, I loved as you just said, to connect it back to what kind of human do we want to be? You know, I tell people a lot when they question, my faith, because I'm open with my doubts and questions and the idea of a literal resurrection. I think those are all questions and doubts I have. And I don't know if I'll ever be able to resolve them yet. But I think I prefer to think of it as that I want to live my life, fighting for what Jesus fought for,   Brian McLaren 05:12 what a great way to what a great way to sit.   Ian Binns 05:15 Right? And so if it's more of that's the way I live, I don't have to stand on a rooftop and scream, everyone be a Christian. It's more of a this is the life I want to live. And I love that you did that.   Brian McLaren 05:26 And isn't it ironic that major sectors of the Christian religion are really uninterested, whether you want to fight for the things Jesus fought for, they're really interested in whether you will check certain boxes, agreeing with their authority figures about what you're supposed to say about Jesus. So I just can't help but think that Jesus would be happier with someone who's ready to join him in the struggle with his word for that was follow me, then then have certain opinions about me. In fact, you know, there's that password thing in the Gospels where he says, You know, I really don't care if you call Me Lord, Lord, I mean, what difference does that make the words you use about me? If you don't do what I say so?   Ian Binns 06:10 All right. Well, and in this book, and also to in your podcast, learning how to see, you start off talking about something that was very close to me. So I got my PhD from the University of Virginia. And so I was in my wife and I were in Charlottesville was the first place we really lived as a young married couple. Were there for 208. And so when the the situation happened in Charlottesville in August of 2017, that was very challenging for us, because the grounds of UVA are places I spent four years of my life that we love that town. And so that was very challenging for us. And then hearing you on your podcast and Reading this book. I would love to, if you could talk more about that experience. Because I didn't realize you were there. And so I just curious if you can kind of talk about that. Yeah.   Brian McLaren 07:04 Well, the story of how I ended up there was kind of interesting, I had introduced this couple to each other who ended up getting married, and both were seminary graduates. And so they were a ministry couple in Charlottesville, and they contacted me and they said, Look, Brian, we you may not have even heard about this. And I hadn't it it turns out, you know, before, was it August 10. I forgotten the date now. Whatever the date was, in August, they'd had a series of Ku Klux Klan rallies, it was like it. A lot of people don't know this. But there is a group of people who are planning for a civil war. And they want to make Charlottesville the capital of the new Confederacy.   Ian Binns 07:46 I did not know that part.   Brian McLaren 07:48 Yeah, it's scary. And it's crazy stuff. But and, and yet very disturbing. And they said, so a really big one is coming in August. And we're we're trying to get clergy to come support us, and to stand with us. And they said, we're finding a lot of clergy of color. And we're finding a lot of women, clergy who will come we're really finding it hard to get white male clergy to come. And of course, there's a big supply of them, but they just couldn't get them to come. So they said it. They said, Is there any chance you could come you need to know it's going to be dangerous, there going to be a lot of guns there. Several militia have already signed up to be there. And they'll all come heavily armed. And I said, I'm not going to tell that last part to my wife. But yes, I would be honored to be there. Actually, she knew that there would be some danger. And she made me make certain promises to her about what I would do and not to when I was there, but it was just an experience I'll never forget first seeing how organized these folks were. They were super, super highly organized. I was invited into a meeting an Antifa meeting of people who were organizing to try to not let these folks sort of rule the city for a day. And I never thought in my lifetime, I would see people carrying Confederate flags, and Nazi flags and a bunch of other flags along with Bibles and other Christian paraphernalia. I never thought I would see that. And of course, and I happen to be just up the street when Heather hair and other was killed and others were injured by a guy using a car as a terrorist weapon to drive through a crowd. And a group of us clergy went I was wearing you know, black leather shoes and I just remember the feeling of my feet slapping against the ground as I ran down this hill into this crowd where there's chaos and people screaming and crying. And so an experience I'll never forget. But then January 6 2021 happened and I just thought there they are again, you know, and in between, I'd organized an a public An event here in Florida where I live, where we had been, our event was disrupted in the entrances were blocked by the proud boys. So I yeah, this has been a big part of my experience and watching the complicity of major sectors of the Christian faith with these folks has been the AI, it's highly significant in the way I wrote this book, do I stay Christian? Because I feel like that I wish I'd put the sentence in the book. But it only became clear to me actually, in the last few days, that one of the reasons I wrote the book the way I did, and I took those first 10 chapters to really take the No seriously is because I am worried that those 10 chapters give a kind of overview of some of Christianity's crimes. And through the centuries, I'm worried that the worst things Christianity has ever done will be exceeded in the next few years. And that's why I feel anyone who stays Christian, better be aware of the danger that our religion poses to this world and to many of our neighbors. And that then puts a kind of responsibility on us to say, if I'm going to inhabit this religion, I better take responsibility for trying to stand up to some of the harm that it is in danger of doing and not just in danger of doing it is actually doing, you know, as we speak, no, yeah.   Zack Jackson 11:29 I mean, we're not just complicit in the rise and spread of white supremacy. Western Christianity is the author of white supremacy, it is very much our child. And it is completely inseparably intertwined with Western Christianity as we know it. And so this is not an issue for the black church to figure out or to lead us in. This is not an issue for people of color to be taking charge. This is our problem, our sin and our need to, to work on to fix to fight. And you're somebody who's been at the frontlines of that. It seems, what what can the rest of us do us white Christians out here? How can we help fight the scourge? I mean, just look, even as we're recording this, we just, we just witnessed another white supremacist, killed 10 people in a buffalo grocery store. And by the time that this podcast launches, who knows? We'll have there will be another one. It just seems like we're just spinning our wheels. Yes.   Brian McLaren 12:31 Well, let me say first, I really agree with you that white Christians really have a responsibility right now. And one of our responsibilities is to listen to the cries and the agony and the frustration of our neighbors of color. who are who are just, you know, who can blame them for saying, you know, if they hear thoughts and prayers one more time, you know, I mean, it's just, it's just, yeah. So here's what one thing I think we can do, I think we can all make a commitment that we will never let a racially harmful statement go unchallenged. And, and I think we have to learn how to challenge them in ways that don't create a worst blowback. But silence is its own vote of confidence, and its own voters support for outrageous, immoral, harmful, dangerous statements. So my little recommendation to people is that you've developed your own version of this five word statement, here's my version of it. Wow, I see that differently. It's instead of, you know, you're such a bigot, you're, it's I see that differently. I throw a while in there, because I want to add a little bit of emotional intense intensity without having to yell or scream. Wow, I see that differently. And almost every time I say that, people say, What do you mean? What do you mean? And if it's in public, I say I say to them, I'd rather talk to you about this in private. If you'd like to ask me about it in private some other time, I'll be glad to talk to you. And the reason I say that, and there might be times to have the conversation in public. But what I've noticed is that anytime these conversations happen in public egos are so involved, people are defending themselves, people are performing their loyalty to whatever group it is. And so it seldom becomes an act of communication, and usually becomes the kind of argument that hardens people and their positions. And I would like to be someone who helps little cracks form in their position or, or helps soften their position. And if if I can set up the terms of that discussion, then I'll say to them, if you're ever curious about why I see things differently and how like came to see things differently. I'll be glad to have that conversation with you and private. Just let me know when you'd like to know how I came to see things differently, because I'm not asking them to tell me how they see things. I'll listen respectfully if they want. But I've been listening respectfully, that's what got us into this situation. And so while I see that differently is my, my mantra in these circumstances?   Ian Binns 15:27 Well, that's very disarming, I   Brian McLaren 15:29 think, and I go, and I feel it's honest, and it's not aggressive. But it also is an act of protest. And it's just an act of deferring boldly, hopefully, graciously, non hatefully, you know? Yeah. And frankly, I'll just say, frankly, late in the book there, in that house section of the book, there's a chapter called, announce and renounce, or renounce and announce, and in some ways, it's the same thing. It's, it's, it's having more and more of us just have the courage to say, I am not where you are. And to do it in a way that says, It's not that I hate you. It's not that I am going to insult you. In fact, I'm going to just state in a way that says, I don't, I'm nothing's changing in our relationship, but I'm not where you are. If that creates a problem for you, then we'll deal with it. But I need to let you know I can be at a different place than you are. So I thought   Ian Binns 16:31 that story you told in that chapter about John Ray and Amanda was really powerful. And one of the phrases that stood out, it was after early on in the story. When John Ray comes back to Amanda and says, I was confronted by your father for 20 minutes. And the phrase that you use in the book was he felt that he was in the presence of Christian hate? Yes. And I thought that was just just those four words, or five words. Yeah, forward presence of Christian hate just really kind of caught me of because I feel like that's what we're seeing a lot of right now.   Brian McLaren 17:08 Yes, yes. And of course, Christians will say, that's not hate, that's love. And they, and they're satisfied with that. But there is something really ugly going on. It's just ugly. And I've experienced that. And my gosh, when you're on Twitter, and Facebook, you know, I grew up fundamentalist. And part of being a fundamentalist is you didn't cuss? And you didn't use crude language. And you you felt this obligation to be decent and, and respectful. But my gosh, the profanity and I mean, it's just, it's just shocking to me to see what what people are doing in the name of Jesus, and it's all sort of acceptable. And of course, some of this is because they're imitating their new leader, you know, Donald Trump, who's, in a sense, the new leader of their denomination that has that has newly formed and, and, and part of this is just stuff that's been in the American psyche for a long time, and maybe we're better with a profanity, because it's, you know, somebody said, what I mentioned, I've had a lot of interactions with the proud boys, they said, there, it's just the kk k with that, and the sheets are off. And I think that's, there's some truth to that. So this is a historical reckoning, that needed to happen. So better now than not letting it happen, you know, letting it fester for another 100 years.   Zack Jackson 18:35 Yeah, that chapter, which kind of tells the story of a couple whose ideologies had changed, their faith had changed, and they hadn't really let their family know, which I think a lot of folks who have deconstructed can relate to because they're going to, they're afraid of then being renounced by their family. And she gathers up the courage after her husband has been sort of accosted for 20 minutes to go up and just tell her father, this is how it's going to be from here on out. And you talked about that in terms of a coming out story for her. And that framing, I think is really helpful. And something that queer theologians, this gift that they have given us, this idea of coming out, it is a vulnerable experience, in which you can be hurt in all new ways. But it is such an empowering experience. I read one, one theologian referred to John one as God's coming out that Jesus is incarnation is him, showing who he truly is to the world and offering up himself to be either accepted in new ways or hurt in all new ways. And I honestly had never understood the Incarnation until then. But this idea that those of us us who are straight sis hetero folks who have never had the need to come out to people to tell them, This is how you have perceived me. But this is how I truly am. We've just always been known for who we are, that this is something that we we should learn, that we should need to love louder than the hate and that we need to be more vocal. It's not enough to just love on our own, but that we need to love loudly and outwardly. Yeah,   Brian McLaren 20:30 another little saying that has kind of been sitting with me lately is I would rather be rejected for who I am then accepted for who I am not.   Ian Binns 20:39 And I wrote that down. Well, like I, I want to tattoo that on my arm or something, because I think that's such a powerful phrase. It really is.   Brian McLaren 20:47 And I think what one of the things that just saying it that way helps me do is realize that the fear of rejection has so much power over so many of us. And as someone who's experienced a bit of rejection. And now I know Zach has led to other people to being rejected. But, but it's, it's not the end of the world. It's not the worst thing that ever happens to you. In fact, some pretty amazing positive things happen can happen in the experience of rejection. So And isn't it interesting in the gospels, this is really a major theme of Jesus teaching. Hey, guys, if you take seriously what I'm saying, you're gonna be rejected, here's what's gonna happen and it and then we're surprised when it happens.   Zack Jackson 21:39 Right? The high priest is gonna block you on Twitter at this point. And   Ian Binns 21:44 well, and I think you mentioning the rejection, the fear of rejection, I mean, that's something that cripples me at times, you know, with my own work of wanting to write, as an academic for more public audience, it, it, something that holds me back quite a bit. And Reading, you know, your book has helped and then also Rob Bell's work as well as helping me remember that it's not, I cannot control people's reactions to my work in my message.   Brian McLaren 22:14 And so we're writing about things that matter than then there are things that people have strong opinions about, and they have vested interests in. And so of course, there'll be pushback, like, you know, every once in awhile, I have to sit down with myself and just say, of course, people would get upset. What were you expecting to get a Nobel Prize? You know, of course. So, yeah, that's just the territory. And it's, it's, it's part of the privilege of talking about things that really matter and, and working on things then that matter. So I like that doesn't it doesn't make it easy, but it does, I think it is, it's something we have to do that helps us navigate through those first few experiences of rejection, that that can either scar us for life or become our hazing. For for a member membership, and a new, a new community.   Zack Jackson 23:19 And I've experienced a lot of the dirty underbelly of the Christian church growing up in, in the back rooms of the church, and then being a part of church leadership, the first 10 chapters of your book, where you talk about all the reasons why you should leave Christianity. I, at the end of every chapter, I thought to myself, I know where he's going. I know there's a there's a part two, but I'm almost ready to just like, just close the book here and be like, yeah, no, he does have a point, why should I be a part of this and re even Reading part two, a couple chapters in where you're talking about why we should stay Christian. And I thought, these don't quite outweigh yet in my mind, where, where Part one was. And then then I hit chapter 14. And you asked us to consider an anticipatory Christianity that is leaning towards the future. And I love that phrase so much. I highlighted it, I wrote it down. And anticipatory Christianity because it describes the stance towards the future in which that doesn't necessarily claim that everything in the future is better than everything in the past that we're evolving into something better, just something different to newer and maybe better adapted. Would you care to unpack that phrase for us? Yeah. Wow. That is bringing you life and older.   Brian McLaren 24:46 There's a lot of ways to do it. But a kind of fun way is to say that both in religion and science, a lot of us inherited a religion, where the Locus of Power was always in the past. So So the, you know, the big bang happens. And I bet most of us have seen this in a science movie somewhere. And it's like somebody's playing pool and they hit the cue ball and the cue ball hits the rack of, you know, balls, and everything is action reaction being driven from the past. And that describes, that's one way of looking at the universe. It's one way of describing the universe. But there's another way to look at it to say, to think of the Locus of Power, not just being in the past, but actually being the future itself, that opens, that constantly gives everything a chance to move in some new direction. And the way that theologians have talked about this is to say instead of thinking of God, pushing things out of the past into the future, imagine God in the distant future, inviting things to keep moving toward maturity. The one of the early church scholars, who is a very imaginative fellow, his name was Gregory of Nyssa. And Gregory, got in trouble with a lot of his fellow scholars, because they all bought into this idea of Greek philosophy that perfection is static, because perfection can only get worse, if it could change, it wouldn't be perfect. If it could change for the better, it wouldn't be perfect. So perfection is always static. And Gregory said, that's just not good enough. He said, perfection is infinite progression, this idea of an endlessly open future for endlessly new possibilities, you know, and so that way of thinking, instead of God's sort of being in control, either behind us or standing over us, it's God inviting us into greater freedom, and greater wholeness and greater maturity and greater relationship and greater diversity and greater beauty, which is actually what we see kind of unfolding in the universe, you know, there was no Mozart or Bob Dylan or Taylor Swift, you know, 4 billion years ago. And so these things, new things that you never ever would have anticipated, are baked into the possibilities and, and have chances to open up. So that's, and when we let that kind of almost scientific view, also have a theological expression. It helps us think about Christianity, not as something that is already set in concrete, but something that is, in its very early stages.   Zack Jackson 27:48 It is hard to think about Christianity in its early stages, 2000 years later, but that is, that can be helpful,   Ian Binns 27:56 if we can, you know, I think I said before we started recording that, especially Reading the first part of your book, where you're providing, you know, many reasons why the answer to your question will be no, that's when I was Reading it near my wife, and I would stop and be like, Oh, my God, I have to have to read this for you. So if I can read a quote to you, that just really stood out for me. And I just would love to get your thoughts on it a little bit more, but it's in the chapter. Because Christianity is a failed religion. And at the very end, you talk about, you know, you kind of are speaking to that your reader, obviously, of asking if that was harsh to them, for people to consider many of the things you've already shared. But you say if you persist in minimizing these failures of the past and brushing them aside as trivial matters, then please realize, to growing millions of people, you now represent the contemporary failure of Christianity to transform lives. To put it more bluntly, you are a living example of the failure of Christianity, and you are another reason for them not to stay Christian, which resonated with me. I mean, I probably I'm very emotional person. And I started crying when I read it, but it was just a, I'd love to know, how did that feel. As a leader in Christianity, many people look to you to write that sentence.   Brian McLaren 29:21 Yeah, I remember writing it and I and I have been in so many of those conversations. I won't mention this name just out of politeness, but a leader of people in my generation, and probably your generation would know his name. He died a few years ago, but he was super well known, highly respected on Christian radio and all that sort of thing. And we once had an email exchange and he gave me permission to go public with it, but I just couldn't do it. And in that email exchange, he said the Crusades weren't that serious. The Witch burnings were exaggerated, he just minimized every single thing. And I just thought to myself, you know, you think you're making Christianity look better. And something else I realized about him is that, for him, Christianity and Western civilization were fused together. And his defense of Christianity was a defense of Western civilization. And in that way, it was an act of aggression toward Muslims, and Buddhists and Hindus. And so it all sort of was of a piece, you know, and I think that's part of what so many of us just don't want to be part of anymore, we don't want to be part of that kind of dismissive defensive. Christianity. And, and, of course, you know, I'm not wanting to go around and vilify all these people of the past. I mean, they are what they are, and they did what they did. And, and, and if I'd been alive, I may have done many of the similar, similar things. But to say that the message of Jesus Christ should not have demanded more of people. It just feels to me like a pretty low opinion of the of Jesus and His message.   Ian Binns 31:21 Well, and as I said, early on to, you know, I try to live by his message and what he fought for, and died for, right. But one other thing you said a little bit earlier in the text, you said, you know, teaching others by their example, to live by Jesus's spiritual method of radical non discriminatory love and courageous truth telling, you know, that's gotten me in trouble at times. With some, and I don't do it nearly as much as I used to. And Zach has actually said, and some of my science education friends have said that they're really happy that I don't engage as much on Twitter, as I used to, partly because I was blocked by Ken Ham, who is still welcome to be on the show. But what I also have several friends who are members of the LGBTQ community, and who are people of faith, and I remember telling one of them one time when we were having a conversation about some of their struggles, and I just kind of said that I believe in a God who loves us for us. Yeah. And that if that makes me wrong, when I have to face God, it didn't my time. And I'm told that's not the way it works. My response to my friend was, I don't want to be there anyway. Like if that if that's what can get me into heaven. If Heaven is a place that they say, you messed up, you have to renounce that I'd say I'm going somewhere else.   Brian McLaren 32:49 Yes, that that God is not good enough. Right? That's just not good enough. My friend Tripp fuller says, Look, if if your view of God isn't half as nice as Jesus, there's something wrong. So, right,   Zack Jackson 33:06 how can Christians take Jesus and like, look at him in the Gospels? And then be like, All right, well, but at the end of it all, we're gonna meet scary God. And he's going to do the scary judge thing. While Jesus the guy, you know, the don't cast the first stone guy. He's just going to be in his room because he's a naughty boy or something. I don't know. Why is he not up on the jet like we can affirm that all members of the Trinity are of one substance, according to the ancient Creed's, but yet won't apply Jesus's examples of grace to the judgments that we fear from God, there   Brian McLaren 33:46 was a Quaker theologian who I just think captured what we're discussing right now. So aptly, he said, it was Elton Trueblood. And this isn't a quote, but this is sort of the substance of one of his ideas. He said, The Christian understanding of the deity of Christ did not mean that we had a definition of God. And Jesus came along and we lifted him up to that definition. He said, what this really is supposed to mean is that we had a definition of God. And Jesus came along, and we had to adjust our definition of God. And I think that's very well, I think that's very well said, I think that's what it should have been. I don't know if that is what happened historically. But I think that's how it should have been.   Zack Jackson 34:38 Yeah, if I can, if I can pivot here for a second. We've we've been on some heavy topics. I want to I want to lighten things up a little bit. I your chapter on rewilding ourselves and our faith and humanity itself was far and above my favorite chapter of the book. I highly They did. The basically the whole thing. It reminded me very much of a conversation those longtime listeners might remember, way back in 2020, episode 42 with Dr. Scott, the paleontologist from PBS, his dinosaur, I   Ian Binns 35:15 remembered it too. First thing I thought about called   Zack Jackson 35:19 reinventing the natural world was was his and his theory. And his, the whole devotion he has towards educating children is that in in order in order to save the world, from climate disaster from environmental disaster, we will not do that by better spreadsheets. Because nobody is apathetic because they don't know the facts. They're apathetic because they don't care. And so his entire life Miss mission is to help children fall back in love. I love to read and chant nature, and to get them outside. And even while watching television to then inspire them to go outside afterwards. Because when you fall in love with the world, then you want to save it. It's your mother. Again, it's not it's not just a commodity anymore. And Reading your chapter about being out on a kayak in the middle of the of Florida. And there's gators and birds and fish and the whole deal. I'm I'm there in my mind. And I'm imagining my own slice of wild here in the Pennsylvania mountains. And I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about how the natural world and how this process of rewilding has awoken your spirituality and how we might best share that with people.   Brian McLaren 36:40 Well, maybe I could just tell you two quick stories. One from yesterday, we had a death in the family over the last week. And so I was out of state. I was in New Jersey, for the funeral. And I had to do a whole bunch of interviews for this book. So I was in, in the home office of my deceased brother in law. To conduct these interviews, I brought along my microphone and had my computer set up. And right outside his window. There's a dogwood tree and in the dogwood tree, about two feet from the window was Robin building her nest and so I was doing interviews literally from you know, 10 in the morning till 11 At night, cuz some of them were Pacific Coast time. And so as I sat there through the day, I watched the mother Robin, come and go and come and go mouthful of mud a mouthful of grass and watching her use her the shape of her body to form the perfect cup. If you've ever observed a bird's nest, it's just this perfect semi sphere. Oh my goodness, it's just an I never gotten to watch that. That's such a intimate angle. And if that wasn't good enough, just before dark, she was out, I guess gathering more materials. And a little English Sparrow came in and climbs into her nest and steals a bunch of grass. And it was just great. And I just felt like I just got to see a little bit of mischief and fat, all the rest of it. But just all felt I just it just was it. There's a poet. What a great resume. There's a fellow named Lanham from Clemson University, who's a biologist and a poet. Isn't that a great combination? And he uses that term in one of his poems orgasm, that we have these experiences of oh, that produce this sort of delight you know, that's that goes beyond words. And, and I had said I felt watching that all unfold. And then another experience. Last summer I fall in love with a place I highly recommend it for people who like this sort of thing called ring Lake Ranch. It's a Christian based retreat center, but it's just a place that brings you out into the wilderness of Wyoming and you get to ride horses and fly fish and hike and and just enjoy an incredible a place with deep history for the sheep eat or people that Native American people that area and, and I took a hike with a botanist. And as we walked through a Badlands area along the Wind River Gorge. She would just everything she talked about was the relationship. We came along she said see that flower there says I've never seen that flower in bloom during the daytime. It's a night blooming flower. And she said there is one species of wasp that pollinates that flower and it only comes out at night. And she said isn't it amazing to think one species of Wasp and one flower have evolved to be sort of partners in their in one another survival, you know, and then we'd come upon a sagebrush, and she talked about before she was done, you just felt you were on holy ground, it was like a burning bush. But it was the sagebrush because she explained, this is high desert. And in the in the winter, snow drifts form around sage brushes, and that snow drifts, then when it melts, it concentrates moisture around the base of the sagebrush, which helps the sagebrush live but also becomes like a little oasis of moisture. And then she starts talking about all the creatures that depend on that moisture of the sagebrush. And I mean, you're done. And you're just, you're, it's ecstatic to think of the web of life that is around you. And, and that sense of connectedness, if that's not holy, I don't know what it is, you know. And so any kind of Christianity that wants to ignore all that and just look at the world as something that God plans to destroy, because he wants to suck our souls up into heaven or send them somewhere else. You just think what, what a blasphemy to, to discount and the wonder and glory that's there, you know, in that a Badlands of the Wind River Gorge.   Zack Jackson 41:27 You talk about that sort of mutual evolution. And the two things that when we first were developing the ideas of evolution, the common conception was survival of the fittest, the strongest, right the the beefiest and biggest teeth. And we've learned that the in many ways that was just white supremacy, Reading itself into science, when the truth is that it's survival of the most adaptable, the most resourceful, the best collaborators is, is survival of those who can work with others best is is how species evolve and continue that relationality is just,   Brian McLaren 42:10 and if we're going to survive, we have to learn that wisdom from from creation, I was honored to be invited to write a book about the Galapagos Islands. So I've had a chance to visit there a few times. And I in my book, I wrote a couple of chapters about Charles Darwin and I, I got to read his biography while I was there, and and then just did a bunch of research and that term survival of the fittest, you may know this. It wasn't Darwin's term. And Arthur, Arthur Wallace, I think it was Arthur was his first name, I, he, he recommended the term because natural selection sounded like it personified nature too much, you know that nature is making choices. Like a Calvinist, God makes choices, and they wanted to get away from that. When they use the word fittest, it meant fit best, the opposite of the most domineering and aggressive, it's those who fit best.   Zack Jackson 43:06 So yes, yes, you will love my favorite. That my favorite new fact in physics that is just that is filling my soul with all in wonder these days. Is that do you think about the part of the atom that makes that has stuff, right? That has mass that has the stuff that makes you a thing, and not just nothing? Where does your mask come from? Well, only 9% of the mass of an atom comes from the particles of the atom 91% of the mass of every atom comes from the interaction between the atoms, the forces created by the protons and neutrons, generate the the 91% of the mass of you and I and the planet and the stars. Everything is a relationship between things without the relationship, the things that exist don't exist. And I love that. I mean, that is just, that's the illogical.   Brian McLaren 44:05 Literally the weightiest part of the universe is its relationships.   Zack Jackson 44:10 Exactly. It is it is, if you ever wanted to find a fingerprint of a relational Creator, who created a creation that continues to create, it's right there.   Brian McLaren 44:20 And this is when you were talking about anticipatory Christianity. This is if if what will happen if we're given the chance to incorporate all of these magnificent understandings into our theological work, and not just be stuck under this very low ceiling of Neoplatonic philosophy? Which has its own beauties and all the rest, but you know, yeah, so all of this is one of the other reasons it's a little hard to walk away in spite of all the horrible things because somebody is going to get to do this kind of revisioning of what we mean when we say the word God, in light of all of this, and what we mean when we say the word human in light of all of this, and it's sort of would be a shame to miss miss that fun.   Zack Jackson 45:15 It is fun, isn't it?   Ian Binns 45:17 Well, and, you know, Reading throughout your, your book too about, you know, the interconnectedness of all things, and just the importance of, you know, stepping back from that just developing those connections and those relationships, you know, that's something that as a teacher, I do with my students, and, you know, I teach future elementary school teachers how to teach science. And so one of the first things I really focus on is not necessarily, let's get into teaching science immediately, it's, let's develop a connection to each other a relationship. And, you know, I've been told by some of my colleagues that they've always been impressed that typically by week two, I've developed a very strong rapport with my students. And I tell my students, this is my messaging to them all the time, is that if you're able to connect with your students, on a personal level in some way, you can teach them anything there is yes, yes, yes. Because they will learn to trust you and know they're in a safe space.   Brian McLaren 46:21 Yes. And in the presence of that kind of respect and affection, you know, and in the presence of that, our curiosity comes out. And so then we become natural learners because we feel safe and all the rest. Oh, it's so true. And this, again, is one of the things that I think we have to realize that the Christian religion, by working so much on a base of fear and shame, creates an antagonistic environment to learning and curiosity. And it might be one of the factors in the lack of transformation we were talking about before, it makes people sort of hunker down, rather than open up.   Ian Binns 47:07 Well, that's, you know, part of that, too, with developing that relationship and connection is in it kind of touches on something. Zack, you said earlier when talking about Dr. Scott, coming on, as you know, teaching people to love nature, again, is that I approached my class, also teaching them to not fear science. Yes. And to realize why it's such an incredible thing to teach. And that children are natural born scientists. Yes. Just they'll whole notion of being curious and wanting to ask a question is doing science. And so I remind them of that. And then I say, Now let's have some fun, and focus on ways to teach it. But if they can get that down, yeah, pretty quickly, we're gonna have a good time. So   Brian McLaren 47:54 be a nice thing for seminarians to hear.   Zack Jackson 48:00 I mentioned before we started recording, friend of mine just wrote his first book, called Jesus takes the side embracing the political demands of the gospel, his name is Johnny Rashid. By the time this episode airs, I think it'll be a week out from release. And in it, one of the things he argues is that Western Christianity doesn't have a sense of honor, but it does have a sense of shame. And most societies are honor shame based, and his family comes from Egypt, and they have a deeply ingrained system of honor and shame and honor and shame is how you keep society together, how to keep religion together, but Western Christianity has a lot of shame. But we have no systems of honor. anymore. And so we cling desperately, to our our dogma, our beliefs, our right thinking, because it is so easy to feel shame, and so hard to find honor in the system anymore. Sounds remarkable. It is. And it's it's a great book, and everyone should read it. But I think that when we're talking about reimagining the church and reimagining our faith and our religion and what it means to follow Christ. I mean, I can't think of another historical person who spent more time pouring honor on people that other people poured Seamus. Yes, yes, yes. And if we're going to reimagine this faith, I think we put that near the center. I love it. As as we're, as we're sort of wrapping up our time together. I want to I want to ask you one more question. That for me, is very full circle. Because back in 2006, I preached a sermon as a teenager, at my home church, based on your brand new book, The secret message of Jesus. A part of that book is in which you talked about how the phrase the kingdom of God doesn't work. In this post monarchical world. You know, nobody knows what a kingdom is anymore. Jesus was using a metaphor for his time that no longer works, and probably carries too many too much baggage for it to be useful. And you propose a dozen different solutions. The the, my favorite one at the time was the dream of God, that was the name of the sermon, actually just listen to the sermon today, it was very hard to listen to an 18 year old me preach a sermon. But here we are. I wonder if in the past 16 years, you've found a version of the kingdom of God that resonates deeper with you. And with the current reality, we find ourselves very   Brian McLaren 50:40 much. So that's very relevant to our discussion today. You know, there, there's a chapter in the book called to free God and, and I, I have a beautiful quote from Barbara brown Taylor that plays heavily in the book and and, in fact, maybe the way for me to say the phrase is to say that I think this phrase refers to the kingdom of God. And I think it refers to God. In that chapter I talk about in do I stay Christian, I talk about the you that we refer to God, that seems to me becomes a we, because the the nature of God, it seems to me is a God of participation, who invites us into participation in the divine life. And so anyhow, the phrase is the web of life. And, in fact, I, I wrote a little table grace, that is my table grace for the last several years. And it's I just say, for this breath, for this heartbeat, for this meal with these companions. For the web of life of which were part we give thanks with all our heart. And it's an as I'm saying, the web of life. I realized, I'm not just talking about you that web of life includes God. It's a we that's God and creation in that one web. So that now I think the web is what weighs 91%, or this 91% of the mass.   Zack Jackson 52:20 Yes, absolutely. It is all about how we are connected to one one,   Ian Binns 52:24 if I may ask one more question. Brian is based on something you said to us at the very beginning. After you talked about your experience with Charlottesville, you said you kind of alluded to that you are concerned about things to come. Yeah. Right. So that was hard to hear. Yeah. So what gives you hope? Yeah. Because January 6 was rough. It was rough. For those of us who admit what happened.   Brian McLaren 52:57 So in that's really an important question. And in fact, that's going to be at the heart of the next book I write actually. And I guess one thing I can say is the word hope used to mean for me, where do I see trend lines that make me think things might get better? And I'm not defining hope that way anymore. I'm not defining hope as having anything to do with evidence or not, not depending on evidence. And because what I expect this is what's helping me have hope, to not have to depend on evidence for things getting better. What I expect will happen is that forms of Christianity will get worse than they've ever been. I think that's almost unavoidable. I think, I can't imagine it not happening. i There are people who want it to happen, they want Christianity to become in words I would use uglier, more selfish, more vicious, more violent. And I have no hope that that will not happen, like that will happen. But here's the here's what I think, as that happens, I'm quite certain that we are seeing and we'll see extraordinarily beautiful expressions of Christian faith and other expressions of human life as well. Just because the ugliness that we'll see will will provoke many of us to step out of sort of complacency into a more vigorous and robust expression of beauty and pursuit of beauty. And, and the lies and conspiracy theories on one side will make us more passionate to actually know and face the truth and and, and, of that, of course, I do see evidence I see our conversation being evidence all The three of us are different than we were three years ago. And, and so, you know, it's just all around us. I would I was, you know, I said I was out of town. And when I was on a plane coming home this morning, as I walked down the aisle of the plane, I just had one of those kinds of grace moments, where as I walked down the aisle, I, this guy is asleep. And this woman is tending her child, and this older person is Reading a magazine. And as I'm walking down the aisle toward my seat at the back, cheap seat of the plane, I just felt this tenderness and love and saw the beauty of these people was one of those moments where you just sort of you feel every one of these people is beloved, you know, and, and I just think more and more of us are moving in that direction. But that won't stop the ugly people the ugly things from happening, and taking over more and more people's lives to so that's how I that's how I survived i i have to be able to expect the worst will happen and and the best will happen.   Ian Binns 56:07 So then we'll just also have to have you back on when you finish that next book. Okay. I would like that. I would appreciate that response. Brian. That helps a lot. salutely Thanks. Yeah.   Zack Jackson 56:18 The book is called do I stay Christian, a guide for the doubters, the disappointed and the disillusioned, it is available wherever you get your books as of yesterday. Brian has been such a pleasure to talk with you for the past hour. Thank you so much for carving time out of your ridiculously busy life to be   Brian McLaren 56:38 such a delight. It's just been a pleasure. I'm, I feel energized and I'm so glad you're doing what you're doing. Thanks for having me on. And please keep up the good work. It's important. Thank you      

Heaven is the decision I must make. In this world Heaven is a choice, because here we believe there are alternatives to choose between. We think that all things have an opposite, and what we want we choose. If Heaven exists there must be hell as well, for contradiction is the way we make what we perceive, and what we think is real. Creation knows no opposite. But here is opposition part of being "real." It is this strange perception of the truth that makes the choice of Heaven seem to be the same as the relinquishment of hell. It is not really thus. Yet what is true in God's creation cannot enter here until it is reflected in some form the world can understand. Truth cannot come where it could only be perceived with fear. For this would be the error truth can be brought to illusions. Opposition makes the truth unwelcome, and it cannot come. Choice is the obvious escape from what appears as opposites. Decision lets one of conflicting goals become the aim of effort and expenditure of time. Without decision, time is but a waste and effort dissipated. It is spent for nothing in return, and time goes by without results. There is no sense of gain, for nothing is accomplished; nothing learned. You need to be reminded that you think a thousand choices are confronting you, when there is really only one to make. And even this but seems to be a choice. Do not confuse yourself with all the doubts that myriad decisions would induce. You make but one. And when that one is made, you will perceive it was no choice at all. For truth is true, and nothing else is true. There is no opposite to choose instead. There is no contradiction to the truth. Choosing depends on learning. And the truth cannot be learned, but only recognized. In recognition its acceptance lies, and as it is accepted it is known. But knowledge is beyond the goals we seek to teach within the framework of this course. Ours are teaching goals, to be attained through learning how to reach them, what they are, and what they offer you. Decisions are the outcome of your learning, for they rest on what you have accepted as the truth of what you are, and what your needs must be. In this insanely complicated world, Heaven appears to take the form of choice, rather than merely being what it is. Of all the choices you have tried to make this is the simplest, most definitive and prototype of all the rest, the one which settles all decisions. If you could decide the rest, this one remains unsolved. But when you solve this one, the others are resolved with it, for all decisions but conceal this one by taking different forms. Here is the final and the only choice in which is truth accepted or denied. So we begin today considering the choice that time was made to help us make. Such is its holy purpose, now transformed from the intent you gave it; that it be a means for demonstrating hell is real, hope changes to despair, and life itself must in the end be overcome by death. In death alone are opposites resolved, for ending opposition is to die. And thus salvation must be seen as death, for life is seen as conflict. To resolve the conflict is to end your life as well. These mad beliefs can gain unconscious hold of great intensity, and grip the mind with terror and anxiety so strong that it will not relinquish its ideas about its own protection. It must be saved from salvation, threatened to be safe, and magically armored against truth. And these decisions are made unaware, to keep them safely undisturbed; apart from question and from reason and from doubt. Heaven is chosen consciously. The choice cannot be made until alternatives are accurately seen and understood. All that is veiled in shadows must be raised to understanding, to be judged again, this time with Heaven's help. And all mistakes in judgment that the mind had made before are open to correction, as the truth dismisses them as causeless. Now are they without effects. They cannot be concealed, because their nothingness is recognized. The conscious choice of Heaven is as sure as is the ending of the fear of hell, when it is raised from its protective shield of unawareness, and is brought to light. Who can decide between the clearly seen and the unrecognized? Yet who can fail to make a choice between alternatives when only one is seen as valuable; the other as a wholly worthless thing, a but imagined source of guilt and pain? Who hesitates to make a choice like this? And shall we hesitate to choose today? We make the choice for Heaven as we wake, and spend five minutes making sure that we have made the one decision that is sane. We recognize we make a conscious choice between what has existence and what has nothing but an appearance of the truth. Its pseudo-being, brought to what is real, is flimsy and transparent in the light. It holds no terror now, for what was made enormous, vengeful, pitiless with hate, demands obscurity for fear to be invested there. Now it is recognized as but a foolish, trivial mistake. Before we close our eyes in sleep tonight, we reaffirm the choice that we have made each hour in between. And now we give the last five minutes of our waking day to the decision with which we awoke. As every hour passed, we have declared our choice again, in a brief quiet time devoted to maintaining sanity. And finally, we close the day with this, acknowledging we chose but what we want: Heaven is the decision I must make. I make it now, and will not change my mind, because it is the only thing I want.- Jesus Christ in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 138

In this week's message, Pastor Nunn challenges us to truly consider where we place our time, treasure, and our talents. If Heaven is for real, then why don't we live like it and allow God to make a difference in this world through us.Make sure to subscribe, share, and visit us at TruthAndLoveMinistries.orgIntro and Outro Music: Sunkissed by IksonWorship Song: Goodness of God by CeCe Winans

  This week's episode is power packed!    Have you ever wondered:   If Heaven is boring? If you will see your loved ones in Heaven? What would it be like to see Jesus face to face? What matters most when we die?   We discuss these questions and more!    Randy was an agnostic in his youth and even as a Christian leader had a crisis of faith leading up to his afterlife experience when he clinically died for 30-minutes.  Troy Brewer said it best in his endorsement of Randy's book: “This is not just another book on near death experience. It is a contemplative, SCripture-filled witness to the majesty and love of our heavenly Father, and His amazing Kingdom.”   In Revelations from Heaven, Randy leads you into a heavenly encounter of your own, revealing 31 revelations that God is unveiling to you. Take hold of the amazing truths that Heaven has released through Randy's incredible experience, and see for yourself the powerful life-change that can accompany Revelations from Heaven   You can order your own copy of Randy's book here: https://amzn.to/3HhJ5mD   TO REGISTER for Debbie's Upcoming Classes and Workshops Go HERE:  https://debbiekitterman.com/shop/ You can order your own copy of Debbie's Training Manual, “Releasing the Heart of God through Hearing His Voice here: https://amzn.to/2VVsiCL Or on her website at: https://debbiekitterman.com/shop/ Or check out https://d2htraining.com for Debbie's video teaching course Symbolism Reference Guide & Dream Journal here: https://amzn.to/35Mccxm

Gospel artist Jason Clayborn and CCM worship leader Stephen McWhirter first connected while Jason's group performed on a Louisville, KY TV show called "The Sound." The instant friendship has led to a series of collaborations celebrating both artists' musical cultures. If Heaven is going to be filled with people of every tongue and every nation, we can only imagine what Heaven will sound like. Although we won't know what that sounds like until we get there, Stephen and Jason are pursuing a creative process that produces music that brings different voices together here on Earth. 

Is there really an afterlife? Is there any evidence outside the Bible that we live on after death? What will Heaven be like? The great Lee Strobel is back on the show with another wonderful “case" book, this one is called The Case for Heaven. Frank asks Lee several intriguing questions that are answered in his new book such as: What evidence is there that we have a soul? What do Near Death Experiences tell us about the afterlife? How can we confirm that NDEs are real and not invented stories? (Some have been invented, but others verified.) What is Hell like? Is it possible that Hell is temporary? Why would God punish someone eternally for temporal sin? Where do we go when we die? Is there are a chance to accept Christ after death? What is Heaven really like? It's not one long church service, is it? If Heaven is real (and it is), you don't want to miss it! If you want to send us a question for the show, please email us at Hello@CrossExamined.org. Subscribe on iTunes: http://bit.ly/CrossExamined_Podcast Rate and review! Thanks!!! Subscribe on Google Play: https://cutt.ly/0E2eua9 Subscribe on Spotify: http://bit.ly/CrossExaminedOfficial_Podcast Subscribe on Stitcher: http://bit.ly/CE_Podcast_Stitcher  

If Heaven is so great, why do we struggle to long for it? If eternity is so compelling, why do we live for today? Join Pastor Nat as he cultivates the right view of eternity. Download the Transcript of Today's Podcast Pastor Nat has written a new book and we'd like you to have it.  It's called Faith in Real LifeIn Faith in Real Life, we'll examine the lives of several men and women from the Bible and see how they responded in faith to the challenges and trials they faced. We'll be reminded that even though God doesn't promise an easy life to those who follow Him, He does promise to walk with us every step of the way empowering us to shine for him even when life gets dark.Get your copy today.

If Heaven is real who is going to be there? What will our relationships be like? What is the highlight? Pastor OJ addresses these questions with answers from scripture encouraging us that heaven is our real home.

Heaven is the decision I must make. In this world Heaven is a choice, because here we believe there are alternatives to choose between. We think that all things have an opposite, and what we want we choose. If Heaven exists there must be hell as well, for contradiction is the way we make what we perceive, and what we think is real. Creation knows no opposite. But here is opposition part of being "real." It is this strange perception of the truth that makes the choice of Heaven seem to be the same as the relinquishment of hell. It is not really thus. Yet what is true in God's creation cannot enter here until it is reflected in some form the world can understand. Truth cannot come where it could only be perceived with fear. For this would be the error truth can be brought to illusions. Opposition makes the truth unwelcome, and it cannot come. Choice is the obvious escape from what appears as opposites. Decision lets one of conflicting goals become the aim of effort and expenditure of time. Without decision, time is but a waste and effort dissipated. It is spent for nothing in return, and time goes by without results. There is no sense of gain, for nothing is accomplished; nothing learned. You need to be reminded that you think a thousand choices are confronting you, when there is really only one to make. And even this but seems to be a choice. Do not confuse yourself with all the doubts that myriad decisions would induce. You make but one. And when that one is made, you will perceive it was no choice at all. For truth is true, and nothing else is true. There is no opposite to choose instead. There is no contradiction to the truth. Choosing depends on learning. And the truth cannot be learned, but only recognized. In recognition its acceptance lies, and as it is accepted it is known. But knowledge is beyond the goals we seek to teach within the framework of this course. Ours are teaching goals, to be attained through learning how to reach them, what they are, and what they offer you. Decisions are the outcome of your learning, for they rest on what you have accepted as the truth of what you are, and what your needs must be. In this insanely complicated world, Heaven appears to take the form of choice, rather than merely being what it is. Of all the choices you have tried to make this is the simplest, most definitive and prototype of all the rest, the one which settles all decisions. If you could decide the rest, this one remains unsolved. But when you solve this one, the others are resolved with it, for all decisions but conceal this one by taking different forms. Here is the final and the only choice in which is truth accepted or denied. So we begin today considering the choice that time was made to help us make. Such is its holy purpose, now transformed from the intent you gave it; that it be a means for demonstrating hell is real, hope changes to despair, and life itself must in the end be overcome by death. In death alone are opposites resolved, for ending opposition is to die. And thus salvation must be seen as death, for life is seen as conflict. To resolve the conflict is to end your life as well. These mad beliefs can gain unconscious hold of great intensity, and grip the mind with terror and anxiety so strong that it will not relinquish its ideas about its own protection. It must be saved from salvation, threatened to be safe, and magically armored against truth. And these decisions are made unaware, to keep them safely undisturbed; apart from question and from reason and from doubt. Heaven is chosen consciously. The choice cannot be made until alternatives are accurately seen and understood. All that is veiled in shadows must be raised to understanding, to be judged again, this time with Heaven's help. And all mistakes in judgment that the mind had made before are open to correction, as the truth dismisses them as causeless. Now are they without effects. They cannot be concealed, because their nothingness is recognized. The conscious choice of Heaven is as sure as is the ending of the fear of hell, when it is raised from its protective shield of unawareness, and is brought to light. Who can decide between the clearly seen and the unrecognized? Yet who can fail to make a choice between alternatives when only one is seen as valuable; the other as a wholly worthless thing, a but imagined source of guilt and pain? Who hesitates to make a choice like this? And shall we hesitate to choose today? We make the choice for Heaven as we wake, and spend five minutes making sure that we have made the one decision that is sane. We recognize we make a conscious choice between what has existence and what has nothing but an appearance of the truth. Its pseudo-being, brought to what is real, is flimsy and transparent in the light. It holds no terror now, for what was made enormous, vengeful, pitiless with hate, demands obscurity for fear to be invested there. Now it is recognized as but a foolish, trivial mistake. Before we close our eyes in sleep tonight, we reaffirm the choice that we have made each hour in between. And now we give the last five minutes of our waking day to the decision with which we awoke. As every hour passed, we have declared our choice again, in a brief quiet time devoted to maintaining sanity. And finally, we close the day with this, acknowledging we chose but what we want: Heaven is the decision I must make. I make it now, and will not change my mind, because it is the only thing I want.- Jesus Christ in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 138

Heaven is the decision I must make. In this world Heaven is a choice, because here we believe there are alternatives to choose between. We think that all things have an opposite, and what we want we choose. If Heaven exists there must be hell as well, for contradiction is the way we make what we perceive, and what we think is real. Creation knows no opposite. But here is opposition part of being "real." It is this strange perception of the truth that makes the choice of Heaven seem to be the same as the relinquishment of hell. It is not really thus. Yet what is true in God's creation cannot enter here until it is reflected in some form the world can understand. Truth cannot come where it could only be perceived with fear. For this would be the error truth can be brought to illusions. Opposition makes the truth unwelcome, and it cannot come. Choice is the obvious escape from what appears as opposites. Decision lets one of conflicting goals become the aim of effort and expenditure of time. Without decision, time is but a waste and effort dissipated. It is spent for nothing in return, and time goes by without results. There is no sense of gain, for nothing is accomplished; nothing learned. You need to be reminded that you think a thousand choices are confronting you, when there is really only one to make. And even this but seems to be a choice. Do not confuse yourself with all the doubts that myriad decisions would induce. You make but one. And when that one is made, you will perceive it was no choice at all. For truth is true, and nothing else is true. There is no opposite to choose instead. There is no contradiction to the truth. Choosing depends on learning. And the truth cannot be learned, but only recognized. In recognition its acceptance lies, and as it is accepted it is known. But knowledge is beyond the goals we seek to teach within the framework of this course. Ours are teaching goals, to be attained through learning how to reach them, what they are, and what they offer you. Decisions are the outcome of your learning, for they rest on what you have accepted as the truth of what you are, and what your needs must be. In this insanely complicated world, Heaven appears to take the form of choice, rather than merely being what it is. Of all the choices you have tried to make this is the simplest, most definitive and prototype of all the rest, the one which settles all decisions. If you could decide the rest, this one remains unsolved. But when you solve this one, the others are resolved with it, for all decisions but conceal this one by taking different forms. Here is the final and the only choice in which is truth accepted or denied. So we begin today considering the choice that time was made to help us make. Such is its holy purpose, now transformed from the intent you gave it; that it be a means for demonstrating hell is real, hope changes to despair, and life itself must in the end be overcome by death. In death alone are opposites resolved, for ending opposition is to die. And thus salvation must be seen as death, for life is seen as conflict. To resolve the conflict is to end your life as well. These mad beliefs can gain unconscious hold of great intensity, and grip the mind with terror and anxiety so strong that it will not relinquish its ideas about its own protection. It must be saved from salvation, threatened to be safe, and magically armored against truth. And these decisions are made unaware, to keep them safely undisturbed; apart from question and from reason and from doubt. Heaven is chosen consciously. The choice cannot be made until alternatives are accurately seen and understood. All that is veiled in shadows must be raised to understanding, to be judged again, this time with Heaven's help. And all mistakes in judgment that the mind had made before are open to correction, as the truth dismisses them as causeless. Now are they without effects. They cannot be concealed, because their nothingness is recognized. The conscious choice of Heaven is as sure as is the ending of the fear of hell, when it is raised from its protective shield of unawareness, and is brought to light. Who can decide between the clearly seen and the unrecognized? Yet who can fail to make a choice between alternatives when only one is seen as valuable; the other as a wholly worthless thing, a but imagined source of guilt and pain? Who hesitates to make a choice like this? And shall we hesitate to choose today? We make the choice for Heaven as we wake, and spend five minutes making sure that we have made the one decision that is sane. We recognize we make a conscious choice between what has existence and what has nothing but an appearance of the truth. Its pseudo-being, brought to what is real, is flimsy and transparent in the light. It holds no terror now, for what was made enormous, vengeful, pitiless with hate, demands obscurity for fear to be invested there. Now it is recognized as but a foolish, trivial mistake. Before we close our eyes in sleep tonight, we reaffirm the choice that we have made each hour in between. And now we give the last five minutes of our waking day to the decision with which we awoke. As every hour passed, we have declared our choice again, in a brief quiet time devoted to maintaining sanity. And finally, we close the day with this, acknowledging we chose but what we want: Heaven is the decision I must make. I make it now, and will not change my mind, because it is the only thing I want.- Jesus Christ in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 138

As soon as we are born, we start dying. This week we get deep and dreadful while talking about life and death. What happens when we die? If Heaven is real, what’s it like? What do we want to do with our bodies when we die and so much more.

Andy Griggs is a singer/songwriter. Andy talks today about losing his father and brother when he was younger and how that pushed him to be a musician. Hear the funny story of Ronnie Millsap being the umpire for a celebrity softball game. Andy chats openly about his relationship with Waylon Jennings and how Waylon acted towards fans taking pictures of his home. Andy talks about the success of his biggest hit, "You Won't Ever Be Lonely" and the impact that had on his career. There's conversations of Sasquatch and aliens. Also listen as he takes us through an emotional story about his mom asking him to record "If Heaven" after hearing it through his truck speakers. Dylan then breaks down the final episode of the Disney+ series, The Falcon and the Winter Solider. All that and more. Enjoy and FROWN LESS. thehodgepodgeproductions@gmail.com Dylan: instagram.com/iammrdylanhodge Andy: instagram.com/officialandygriggs --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/dylan-hodge/support

If Heaven wasn't part of the equation, would you still serve Jesus? Listen in to hear why you should!

I recommend Jesus. By trying Jesus you have nothing to lose, but you have a lot to gain. It's only a recommendation, the choice is yours! Minds and hearts change when you really get to know Christ the Son and our Father God. You see everything differently. You learn to forgive, love yourself, love others the right way, not allow yourself to be used, abused, etc by others, and many other wonderful and positive things. If Heaven and eternal life is your goal, then you must have a relationship with the Son and the Father!

Daily Bible Study- Fr. Simon explains today’s gospel reading and Jesus instructions to the disciples for preaching repentance.   Caller Question – If Heaven opened at Jesus crucifixion, when did hell open? Word of the Day – Festal Gathering Caller Question – Can anyone go to confession even if they are not Catholic? Caller Question […] All show notes at Father Simon Says February 4th – Preaching Repentance - This podcast produced by Relevant Radio

Questions about why Christ had to die if Old Testament believers already had access to Heaven, why we needed Jesus to be our sacrifice rather than a goat, and whether the Old Testament’s lack of discussion of the afterlife is inconsistent with the New Testament.If Heaven was already accessible to believers prior to Christ’s death, what purpose did Christ’s death serve?Why did our salvation require Jesus’ death rather than God putting our sins on a goat as the Mosaic Law commanded?Is the Bible being inconsistent when the afterlife is a major topic in the New Testament but we don’t see much about it in the Old Testament?

I enjoy my interpersonal relationships with secularists. If Heaven’s real, all good people are going: Non-Christian and Christian. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/antonio-myers4/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/antonio-myers4/support

David Hoffmeister & Frances Xu - Awakening from the Dream Online Retreat - The Illusion of Time - Closing Session.In this world, Heaven is a choice, because here we believe there are alternatives to choose between. We think that all things have an opposite, and what we want we choose. If Heaven exists there must be hell as well, for contradiction is the way we make what we perceive, and what we think is real. (Lesson 138)David and Frances answer questions from participants and closes this profound online retreat "The Illusion of Time". The session starts with Svava and Erik sing Svava's song "The Holy Instant"This "The Illusion of Time" online weekend retreat closing session was recorded on the morning of December 6, 2020, at the Quantico studio in Ajijic, Mexico.To learn more about upcoming live Awakening from the Dream online retreats with David Hoffmeister and the Living Miracles community, go to https://livingmiracles.org/events

If Heaven is, in fact, a dimension of experience that we can access here on Earth, what does that mean? Much depends upon our speech, actions, and habits of perception. Rather than waiting endlessly to “arrive” at Heaven or expect it to be “delivered” to us, we must each, as individuals, participate in its creation. We start by establishing an awareness of Heaven within ourselves, at the Heart, where the material and the spiritual intersect.

Questions about visualization being a function of the brain, the kind of body angels have, and how Jesus, Enoch, and Elijah could have physical bodies if Heaven is immaterial.Doesn’t aphantasia (the inability to visualize things) prove visualization is actually a function of the brain and not mind?What kind of body do angels have?If Heaven is an immaterial realm, how could Jesus, Enoch, and Elijah have physical bodies?

Heaven is the decision I must make. In this world Heaven is a choice, because here we believe there are alternatives to choose between. We think that all things have an opposite, and what we want we choose. If Heaven exists there must be hell as well, for contradiction is the way we make what we perceive, and what we think is real. Creation knows no opposite. But here is opposition part of being "real." It is this strange perception of the truth that makes the choice of Heaven seem to be the same as the relinquishment of hell. It is not really thus. Yet what is true in God's creation cannot enter here until it is reflected in some form the world can understand. Truth cannot come where it could only be perceived with fear. For this would be the error truth can be brought to illusions. Opposition makes the truth unwelcome, and it cannot come. Choice is the obvious escape from what appears as opposites. Decision lets one of conflicting goals become the aim of effort and expenditure of time. Without decision, time is but a waste and effort dissipated. It is spent for nothing in return, and time goes by without results. There is no sense of gain, for nothing is accomplished; nothing learned. You need to be reminded that you think a thousand choices are confronting you, when there is really only one to make. And even this but seems to be a choice. Do not confuse yourself with all the doubts that myriad decisions would induce. You make but one. And when that one is made, you will perceive it was no choice at all. For truth is true, and nothing else is true. There is no opposite to choose instead. There is no contradiction to the truth. Choosing depends on learning. And the truth cannot be learned, but only recognized. In recognition its acceptance lies, and as it is accepted it is known. But knowledge is beyond the goals we seek to teach within the framework of this course. Ours are teaching goals, to be attained through learning how to reach them, what they are, and what they offer you. Decisions are the outcome of your learning, for they rest on what you have accepted as the truth of what you are, and what your needs must be. In this insanely complicated world, Heaven appears to take the form of choice, rather than merely being what it is. Of all the choices you have tried to make this is the simplest, most definitive and prototype of all the rest, the one which settles all decisions. If you could decide the rest, this one remains unsolved. But when you solve this one, the others are resolved with it, for all decisions but conceal this one by taking different forms. Here is the final and the only choice in which is truth accepted or denied. So we begin today considering the choice that time was made to help us make. Such is its holy purpose, now transformed from the intent you gave it; that it be a means for demonstrating hell is real, hope changes to despair, and life itself must in the end be overcome by death. In death alone are opposites resolved, for ending opposition is to die. And thus salvation must be seen as death, for life is seen as conflict. To resolve the conflict is to end your life as well. These mad beliefs can gain unconscious hold of great intensity, and grip the mind with terror and anxiety so strong that it will not relinquish its ideas about its own protection. It must be saved from salvation, threatened to be safe, and magically armored against truth. And these decisions are made unaware, to keep them safely undisturbed; apart from question and from reason and from doubt. Heaven is chosen consciously. The choice cannot be made until alternatives are accurately seen and understood. All that is veiled in shadows must be raised to understanding, to be judged again, this time with Heaven's help. And all mistakes in judgment that the mind had made before are open to correction, as the truth dismisses them as causeless. Now are they without effects. They cannot be concealed, because their nothingness is recognized. The conscious choice of Heaven is as sure as is the ending of the fear of hell, when it is raised from its protective shield of unawareness, and is brought to light. Who can decide between the clearly seen and the unrecognized? Yet who can fail to make a choice between alternatives when only one is seen as valuable; the other as a wholly worthless thing, a but imagined source of guilt and pain? Who hesitates to make a choice like this? And shall we hesitate to choose today? We make the choice for Heaven as we wake, and spend five minutes making sure that we have made the one decision that is sane. We recognize we make a conscious choice between what has existence and what has nothing but an appearance of the truth. Its pseudo-being, brought to what is real, is flimsy and transparent in the light. It holds no terror now, for what was made enormous, vengeful, pitiless with hate, demands obscurity for fear to be invested there. Now it is recognized as but a foolish, trivial mistake. Before we close our eyes in sleep tonight, we reaffirm the choice that we have made each hour in between. And now we give the last five minutes of our waking day to the decision with which we awoke. As every hour passed, we have declared our choice again, in a brief quiet time devoted to maintaining sanity. And finally, we close the day with this, acknowledging we chose but what we want: Heaven is the decision I must make. I make it now, and will not change my mind, because it is the only thing I want.- Jesus Christ in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 137

Author C.S. Lewis once said= “If Heaven is real, nothing else matters. If Heaven is not real, nothing matters at all!” Find out what happens when Jesus Christ reigns on the Earth for 1,000 years of peace (a prelude to Heaven) in this encouraging message from Pastor Doug Johnson on Revelation chapter 20!

If Heaven was was filled with all unchanged believers, it wouldn't be Heaven would it? Transformation and grace to be conformed to the image of the Son was always the goal. The kings of the earth will bring their glory into the New Jerusalem Rev. 21:24His heart is to share with us His glory, not to settle with just a future reward, but to embrace the reality of that world NOW!!! Message by Mt Olive PH Church's Associate Pastor Vee Oxendine. We do not own rights to any music.Support the show (https://tithe.ly/give?c=817388)

Host: Jai Shukla & Guest: Pierre Kaffer   Q1 — You’ve been in the game for almost 30 years. What do you wish you would have known when you started? Unaware of Formula 1 racing as a kid, Pierre Kaffer found himself attracted to go-karts. Only after his first kart race did he realize that racing was the one thing he wanted to do.   Q2 — How did you manage to get into the sport? In his hometown in Germany, he’d constantly see people driving go-karts on the local track. He finally asked his father if he could drive, luckily he obliged, and the rest is history.   Q3 — How did you cultivate the unique strengths that allowed you to become successful? Never planning on a career, he simply raced for the fun of it. Over time, he gradually got better, just taking it to step by step, race by race.   Q4 — Talk us through the journey of getting your first sponsorships. How did you take this sport from a hobby and into something serious? In the beginning, he just looked to local businesses to sponsor him. When he started racing Formula 3, the higher budgets meant he could get bigger sponsorships, one of which recruited him into their racing family, his first big career milestone.   Q5 — Where do you think your strength lies in comparison to other drivers? Pierre Kaffer isn’t just a driver, but someone who also understands the techniques of the cars he drives. He honed his skills as a race car mechanic for Zakspeed and took those skills to race, where he understood how to improve racing techniques from a mechanical standpoint.   Q6 — Even today, what would you say your weaknesses are? Even he’ll admit that impatience can sometimes get the best of him, chalking it up to his immense love and passion for the sport.   Q7 — Are you referring to more on the track or off the track? On the track, of course.   Q8 — Explain how all this translates into endurance races which you do more than others. His fondness for endurance racing comes from the multi-faceted approach needed to be successful. Aside from driving, a lot of calculation and off-track strategy is required to win, from fuel and tire conservation to the synergy of the entire team.    Q9 — What is a common myth that is related to racing? The team as a whole can sometimes be undervalued. You need to build up your team to have the best support and the best race car. If you have all the cogs training, working together, and trusting each other, it allows for the best possible outcome. It’s a cost-free tactic that gives him an edge in competition.   Q10 — Have there been any resources that you feel have helped you along this journey? A good handling of his team and being able to bring everything together is one of the biggest resources he has. At heart, he is a people person and he builds his team to be the most successful they can be.   Q11 — You drove on frozen lakes in the Swedish Laplands. Can you tell us what that was like and what it's all about? Pierre Kaffer was able to rent a frozen lake, from which he then organizes multiple races. There are high speeds, varying difficulties, and freezing temperatures. He gushes that it’s a lot of fun with a lot of great people.   Q12 — You said that life is a race. If Heaven does exist, what would you like to have God say to you at the end? Hopefully, God will put him among the other former racing drivers, including former great James Hunt, who he’d love to chat with. Maybe there will even be a race track up there so he can compete against the greats of all time.

Heaven is the decision I must make. In this world Heaven is a choice, because here we believe there are alternatives to choose between. We think that all things have an opposite, and what we want we choose. If Heaven exists there must be hell as well, for contradiction is the way we make what we perceive, and what we think is real. Creation knows no opposite. But here is opposition part of being "real." It is this strange perception of the truth that makes the choice of Heaven seem to be the same as the relinquishment of hell. It is not really thus. Yet what is true in God's creation cannot enter here until it is reflected in some form the world can understand. Truth cannot come where it could only be perceived with fear. For this would be the error truth can be brought to illusions. Opposition makes the truth unwelcome, and it cannot come. Choice is the obvious escape from what appears as opposites. Decision lets one of conflicting goals become the aim of effort and expenditure of time. Without decision, time is but a waste and effort dissipated. It is spent for nothing in return, and time goes by without results. There is no sense of gain, for nothing is accomplished; nothing learned. You need to be reminded that you think a thousand choices are confronting you, when there is really only one to make. And even this but seems to be a choice. Do not confuse yourself with all the doubts that myriad decisions would induce. You make but one. And when that one is made, you will perceive it was no choice at all. For truth is true, and nothing else is true. There is no opposite to choose instead. There is no contradiction to the truth. Choosing depends on learning. And the truth cannot be learned, but only recognized. In recognition its acceptance lies, and as it is accepted it is known. But knowledge is beyond the goals we seek to teach within the framework of this course. Ours are teaching goals, to be attained through learning how to reach them, what they are, and what they offer you. Decisions are the outcome of your learning, for they rest on what you have accepted as the truth of what you are, and what your needs must be. In this insanely complicated world, Heaven appears to take the form of choice, rather than merely being what it is. Of all the choices you have tried to make this is the simplest, most definitive and prototype of all the rest, the one which settles all decisions. If you could decide the rest, this one remains unsolved. But when you solve this one, the others are resolved with it, for all decisions but conceal this one by taking different forms. Here is the final and the only choice in which is truth accepted or denied. So we begin today considering the choice that time was made to help us make. Such is its holy purpose, now transformed from the intent you gave it; that it be a means for demonstrating hell is real, hope changes to despair, and life itself must in the end be overcome by death. In death alone are opposites resolved, for ending opposition is to die. And thus salvation must be seen as death, for life is seen as conflict. To resolve the conflict is to end your life as well. These mad beliefs can gain unconscious hold of great intensity, and grip the mind with terror and anxiety so strong that it will not relinquish its ideas about its own protection. It must be saved from salvation, threatened to be safe, and magically armored against truth. And these decisions are made unaware, to keep them safely undisturbed; apart from question and from reason and from doubt. Heaven is chosen consciously. The choice cannot be made until alternatives are accurately seen and understood. All that is veiled in shadows must be raised to understanding, to be judged again, this time with Heaven's help. And all mistakes in judgment that the mind had made before are open to correction, as the truth dismisses them as causeless. Now are they without effects. They cannot be concealed, because their nothingness is recognized. The conscious choice of Heaven is as sure as is the ending of the fear of hell, when it is raised from its protective shield of unawareness, and is brought to light. Who can decide between the clearly seen and the unrecognized? Yet who can fail to make a choice between alternatives when only one is seen as valuable; the other as a wholly worthless thing, a but imagined source of guilt and pain? Who hesitates to make a choice like this? And shall we hesitate to choose today? We make the choice for Heaven as we wake, and spend five minutes making sure that we have made the one decision that is sane. We recognize we make a conscious choice between what has existence and what has nothing but an appearance of the truth. Its pseudo-being, brought to what is real, is flimsy and transparent in the light. It holds no terror now, for what was made enormous, vengeful, pitiless with hate, demands obscurity for fear to be invested there. Now it is recognized as but a foolish, trivial mistake. Before we close our eyes in sleep tonight, we reaffirm the choice that we have made each hour in between. And now we give the last five minutes of our waking day to the decision with which we awoke. As every hour passed, we have declared our choice again, in a brief quiet time devoted to maintaining sanity. And finally, we close the day with this, acknowledging we chose but what we want: Heaven is the decision I must make. I make it now, and will not change my mind, because it is the only thing I want.- Jesus Christ in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 138

The Bernard Pivot Questionnaire, answered by Colm! 1. What is your favorite word? 2. What is your least favorite word? 3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? 4. What turns you off? 5. What is your favorite curse word? 6. What sound or noise do you love? 7. What sound or noise do you hate? 8. What profession, other than your own, would you like to attempt? 9. What profession would you not like to do? 10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? What are your answers? Let us know at TidBit Cast! Subscribe on Youtube and follow us on social media (Facebook and Instagram) at: TidBit Cast If you'd like to send in suggestions, questions or observations to us, contact us at: talktotidbit@gmail.com We will listen to your comments and may even read some on the show! Hosts this week: Gary Colm David

The Bernard Pivot Questionnaire, answered by David! 1. What is your favorite word? 2. What is your least favorite word? 3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? 4. What turns you off? 5. What is your favorite curse word? 6. What sound or noise do you love? 7. What sound or noise do you hate? 8. What profession, other than your own, would you like to attempt? 9. What profession would you not like to do? 10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? What are your answers? Let us know at TidBit Cast! Subscribe on Youtube and follow us on social media (Facebook and Instagram) at: TidBit Cast If you'd like to send in suggestions, questions or observations to us, contact us at: talktotidbit@gmail.com We will listen to your comments and may even read some on the show! Hosts this week: Gary David Colm

If Heaven is for more than just Christians, why do we bother evangelising, having missionaries or sharing the love of God? Steve argues, that all of these questions come from a common, but inaccurate assumption that Christianity is a kind of life after death insurance policy. Instead, he suggests, Christianity should be about life BEFORE death.

If Heaven and Hell are real places and real people will actually go there, then what can we do about that? How should we live now? In this message, we'll look at the difference this makes to our lives now and how we should be living in light of eternity.

Images of the cross are everywhere. Churches, decals, jewelry, and even candy are all sporting the fascinating image. What does the cross really mean? Why is it so important to our lives? This series investigates the cross by asking a question. If Heaven and Hell were not the issue, is the cross still worth it? This podcast is taken from the series entitled, The Cross As You've Never Seen It.